• The government has announced the development of a National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) in Lothal, Gujarat under the Sagarmala program (under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways (MoPSW)).
  • Sagarmala Programme, launched in 2015 by MoPSW, ensures holistic port infrastructure development along India’s 7500km long coastline.
• The project aims to showcase India’s maritime heritage from ancient to modern times.
• It will consolidate all diverse and rich artifacts from ancient to modern times for edutainment purposes, i.e. entertainment designed to be educational.
• It will include world’s highest light house museum, world’s largest open aquatic gallery, India’s largest naval museum and is envisaged to be one of the biggest international tourist destinations in world.
• It is funded by MoPSW and Ministry of Culture through National Culture Fund by way of grant.

·         Gujarat has more than 200 Indus Valley Civilization sites. ·         Surkatoda and Dholavira are the other two major ones.

ABOUT LOTHAL

• Lothal, prominent city of Indus-Valley Civilization (IVC), had the oldest man-made dry-dock dating back to 2400 BC.
• It is located between Bhogavo and Sabarmati rivers near Gulf of Khambat in Gujarat.
• It was nominated to be enlisted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 and its application is pending on tentative list of UNESCO.

ABOUT INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION

• IVC aka Harappan Civilization was home to largest of four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China.
• It was an urban civilisation which had roads, developed drainage systems , houses made of baked bricks with had two or more storeys.
• It thrived about 2,500 BC in western South Asia, which now is Pakistan and northwest India.
• By 1500 BC, the Harappan culture came to an end.