Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar

• Management systems / Management Plan (lack of an Integrated Master Plan of Nalanda; need for strengthened approaches to visitor management and interpretation)
• Other (lack of appropriate documentation to establish the authenticity of the property)

On 13 December 2019, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1502/documents/ and presents progress with a number of conservation issues addressed by the Committee at its previous sessions as follows:

• The Integrated Master Plan is at an advanced stage of development and will incorporate recommendations and regulations for development plans within or in the vicinity of the property that may have an impact on its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), authenticity or integrity;
• Conservation works have been carried out based on a 5-year plan between 2014 and 2019. A conservation plan for the next 5 years has been developed and identifies conservation works to be undertaken each year;
• A visitor management plan is being developed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as part of the Management Plan for the property. In the meantime, works on amenities for visitors and site interpretation have already started and some have been completed. The visitor management component of the site management plan will notably address the following aspects: revision of the on-site interpretation system and of the content of the interpretive panels; re-direction of the visitor circulation path; universal accessibility to the maximum possible areas of the property, while avoiding impacts on the excavated remains; upgrade of the existing museum and interpretation centre located in the buffer zone to offer improved exhibitions and content; capacity studies and impact assessments for proposed developments; allocation of public amenities, including washrooms, drinking water points, a ticket counter, dustbins, signage.

The State Party has made progress on a number of the recommendations made by the Committee in 2018. In particular, the development of a visitor management plan, to be incorporated into the Management Plan for the property, is underway. It is also noted that the Integrated Master Plan is currently being prepared and will establish a context to assess the impacts that any future development proposal might have on the OUV of the property, as recommended at the time of the property’s inscription in 2016 and reiterated by the Committee in 2018.

The State Party has indicated that the preparation of a Management Plan is being undertaken by ASI, in response to the Committee’s request to work out a conservation plan for the excavated remains of the property. No details or timeframe for the development of the Management Plan were provided, and it is noted that the report refers to the 5-year work plans as ‘conservation plans’. It is therefore recommended that the Committee reiterate its request that a formal conservation plan be developed and integrate management and conservation to safeguard the OUV and authenticity of the property.