The massive renovation and restoration effort at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, executed through the public-private partnership model, has won the UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Merit 2017 for cultural heritage conservation.
It has become the first temple in Tamil Nadu to be given the prestigious award from the UN body.
The temple bagged one of the four Awards of Merit from a jury comprising nine international conservation experts, which considered conservation projects from 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region.
The honours and awards by the UNESCO for cultural heritage conservation were graded under four different categories .
The famous Christ Church in Mumbai and Royal Bombay Opera House are the other historic Indian monuments that received the Award of Merit this year, in addition to the temple.
UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation
The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation recognize excellent achievement in successfully conserving or restoring heritage buildings and properties in the region by the private sector or by public- private initiatives.