National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) developed at Lothal
Recently the Central Government is developing “National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC)” at Lothal in Gujarat.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) is developing an NMHC at Lothal with world-class facilities. It is being developed under the Sagarmala programme. It aims to showcase the rich and diverse maritime heritage of India.
In this, all the diverse and rich artefacts from ancient to modern times will be stored for education-cum-entertainment purposes.
This complex will include the following:
- World’s Highest Lighthouse Museum,
- World’s largest open water gallery and India’s largest naval museum. It is being developed as one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world.
Lothal, Ahmedabad
- It was a major city of the Indus Valley Civilization. Evidence of the oldest man-made dry dock (Dry Dock) of 2400 BC has been obtained from here.
- The site is situated between the Bhogwa and Sabarmati rivers near the Gulf of Khambhat.
- It was nominated for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014. However, it is still on the tentative list of UNESCO.
Indus Valley Civilization
- It is also known as the Harappan Civilization. It was the largest (geographical) civilization among the four ancient urban civilizations of the then world. The other three civilizations are – Egyptian, Mesopotamia and Chinese civilization.
- This civilization flourished in western South Asia around 2,500 BC. Presently it is the area of Pakistan and North-West India.
- Sagarmala Programme: MoPSW started this program in 2015. Under this programme, overall port infrastructure is being developed along India’s 7500 km long coastline.
Source – PIB
