If Udaipur is ‘Venice of the East’, there is every chance that Jaipur shall soon become ‘Paris of the East’
Capital city of India’s only desert state, Jaipur is looked at with great fascination across the world given its unique identity and historical treasure trove. The ever-so-lively city of Jaipur receives the world with exotic scents, vibrant hues and flourishing magnificence. Historical as it is, Jaipur has always been a perfect example of balance between its golden past and contemporary present. The city lost thin-lines of brilliance with absence of proper maintenance, lack of cleanliness and the indifference shown by the Congress government during 2008-2013.
With the change of governance in 2013, Rajasthan embraced its new leader Vasundhara Raje with open arms. A known aesthete, Raje was expected to work wonders with the capital city of Rajasthan as she had done in her last tenure. True to her commitments, Vasundhara Raje has left no stone unturned to ensure that the city of Jaipur regains its lost splendor. Raje believes in visualizing and repositioning the present without rejecting the past, something that she likes to call ‘tourism reboot’. The city has undergone almost like a makeover since 2013. In just two years, Jaipur’s progress as a city can be seen in the labels it has received. Repackaging heritage in an innovative way to catch the attention of not just new tourism markets but also reaching out to the Gen X defines the new tourism policy.
Ranking third in the ‘India’s first 20 smart cities’ list along with being credited with the title ‘World Crafts City’ by the World Crafts Council (WCC) – Jaipur has surely claimed the best of both worlds. We bring to you six reasons why Jaipur could be the Paris of Asia.
1. Cleanliness
What happens when the Chief Minister of a State in India has a creative mind? You get a creative city. Not long after she became the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje issued special, and to the delight of citizens, strict instructions to ensure that the entire city gets a clean up. With great impetus received from PM’s Swacch Bharat Mission, the entire city came together under several cleaning drives for Mission #CleanJaipur. The result was a sparkled clean Jaipur with roads looking as neat as ever! Wonderful example of how awareness and proper civic sense of the people of a city can lead to its unimaginable beautification.
2. Open Air Museum
It is a known fact that Jaipur’s character is rooted in its rich art and craft traditions. Chief Minister Raje formed a panel of experts known as ‘Rajasthan Crafts Council’ whose primary objective was to turn Jaipur into a premier platform for both contemporary and classic art. CM Raje has also taken various initiatives that aim to help revitalization of crafts in the state as well as identification of thrust sectors for focus development. Recently, the whole town woke up to beautiful Jogi Art paintings etched on hoardings with the theme ‘Living Arts of Rajasthan’ across Jaipur. The hoardings also consisted of the Artists’ names and contact in case someone was interested in buying the art. A fresh sight from the usual government designs, the entire city almost became like an open-air museum. People would stop their cars and click pictures with these vibrant, artsy backgrounds.
The Government has also been introducing innovations in areas of design, product & skill development, quality control and branding, credit access, market access, cluster development. It is quite evident that Vasundhara Raje is making all efforts to make Jaipur an Art hub that shall also lead to nurturing of thousands of artisans. In this endeavor, railway stations of all district headquarters of Rajasthan will also be painted with indigenous art forms. The Sawai Madhopur railway station is one such example that was lauded by one and all.
3. Connectivity
With the vision of enhancing connectivity, CM Vasundhara Raje has initiated the process for an intra model mobility facility. Under this, the residents would be able to travel in bus, Metro, auto, cab, using one card. An app-based service that shall potentially help the city in controlling traffic congestion as well as pollution is also under development. After launching the first phase of the Jaipur Metro, the Government is working towards completion of the second part of first phase in the old city area, while being careful with its rich heritage on CM’s insistence. Raje is ensuring Raje recently inaugurated a super luxury bus service at Bikaner House in Delhi for ferrying tourists to various destinations in Rajastan. Passengers travelling in these new beautifully packaged buses at a few selected routes would be under CCTV surveillance to keep a watch on any suspicious activity and to provide safety to the women passengers. Not just real, but Raje, in an attempt to improve virtual connectivity, has started free wifi service at various public spaces and tourist spots in Jaipur. In a recent development, Jaipur shall soon also be amongst the first few stations to make high-speed Internet facility available for thousands of its passengers who travel everyday by trains.
4. Festivals
We earlier told you how Rajasthan has your perfect travel calendar set. The automobile art festival titled ‘Cartist 2015’ saw art students and established artists from across India flock to Rajasthan capital Jaipur. Autos with beautifully painted crash doors, bonnets and tires became center of attraction during the Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit. Read more here: Art on Wheels Similar autos now adorn the streets of Bikaner after Vasundhara Raje insisted that autos should be embellished in all districts. As a result of similar ideation by Vasundhara Raje, Jaipur will also host the first edition of Travel Photo Jaipur, an international outdoor and travel photography festival that will include 14 photo exhibitions, two special interventions and a series of talks by eminent personalities from the global photography industry between Feb 5 and 14.
Beyond the traditional Gangaur and Teej festivals, Jaipur is adopting a contemporary approach towards hosting modern festivals with JLF (Read more here: Jaipur Literature Festival), International Film Festival, Jaipur Art Festival and so many more!
5. Infrastructure
Jaipur is a city with art alive in its heart and modernity stretching in its arms. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had directed the Jaipur Metro officials to maintain the heritage of the city at all costs and any historical artifacts found during the digging had to be preserved. For hundred years, the people of Jaipur had no clue about what lay right beneath their homes. While officials dug earth for the second part of phase one of metro development, they found that underneath lay buried two nearly 250-year-old bavdis or kunds (tanks) that once brought water to the city centre from the surrounding Aravalli Hills. Such is the enchantment of this city. Raje Government’s has developed signature schemes for its prime focus areas of power, water, roads and solid waste management. With extra attention being paid to soft infrastructure with emphasis on the “life support” functions provided by a network of natural ecosystems, in harmony with interconnectivity to support long-term sustainability, Jaipur shall soon become a clean and smart city, which is also eco-friendly.
Like the new tourism campaign tagline for Rajasthan says – ‘Jaane Kya Dikh Jaye!’ – every part of this beautiful ‘Pink city’ is full of pleasant surprises.
With Jaipur waiting for you with open arms, the Louvre might just be a passé.
