Urban development transforms Jaipur into a modern city

Introduction

Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and was built in the 18th century by Sawai Jai Singh as India???s first planned city. During the regime of Sawai Ram Singh, the whole city was painted pink to welcome Edward, Prince of Wales from that time onwards Jaipur is also known as pink city.?? This royal place is rich in heritage, culture and architecture. With splendid fortresses, majestic palaces, tranquil temples and beautiful havelis; Jaipur turns out to be an ideal tourist destination. It is not just the royal buildings and palaces that this city offers. Other than these captivating attractions, Jaipur displays exquisite handicrafts and spectacular jewellery products. These intricate works of art add life and colour to this Pink City???s uniqueness. Also, the serenity of lush gardens and floral array acts as the cherry on the cake of fabulous landscapes. All this makes a picturesque view that tends to enthral any visitor.

Jaipur is among the fastest emerging metropolis of the nation. Owing to a good urban planning, sound infrastructure and modern amenities, Jaipur is a perfect destination suited for business and living. Industrialisation thrives in the city in the form of 19 well-developed industrial areas housing 19,544 small scale and 50 medium and large scale units, two world class Special Economic Zones (SEZs), an Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) and two IT Parks. Jaipur is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Agra and Bhopal through four to six lane highways.

Demographics

In 2011, Jaipur had a population of 3,073,350 and it is the 10th largest city of India. While 47.49% of the people lived in rural areas, 52.51% lived in urban areas. The overall literacy rate for the district was 76.44%. Around 87% of males and 65% females are literate. The sex ratio is 898 females per 1,000 males. By 2016, Jaipur is estimated with a population of 44.51 lakh and by 2025, the population of the Jaipur region would reach 75.62 lakhs.

Infrastructure

For the purpose of arriving at the infrastructure requirements, the projected population of the Region for the horizon year 2025 has been used as 75.62 lakh. The UDPFI (Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation) guidelines for urban areas have been used. It may be noted that 7 lakh populations out of this would be in the villages. However, due to unavailability of standards for rural areas, the same have been assumed for the rural component of the JDA Region. The Requirements of the towns have not been covered because in addition to Bagru, Chomu and the earlier proposed towns, new towns would come up by 2025 which have been dealt separately. There are other infrastructure and other facilities which are required like police station, community halls, etc but are quantitatively insignificant at the Region level and to be attended at the city level with spatial proposals. Hence these have not been considered at the Region level.

Housing

The Master Development Plan 2011 in its implementation has witnessed a surge in the Residential development in the whole of Jaipur Region. The conversion demand spread across the region. The increase and concentration of actual development can be seen only within 227 sq km; however the applications for Residential conversion are beyond the urbanisable area of MDP 2011. It requires and continues to require restrictions on the use and occupation of land. The housing shortage is expected to reach 2, 78,412 by 2025.

In general the housing policy is to give the qualitative neighbourhood planning to the public at large for serene living. The inner core of the neighbourhood is to be ensured with primarily residential areas and the secondary activities to be limited to the peripheral 18 meter and above roads.

Malviya Nagar is an affluent region in South Jaipur and is close to Durgapura, Jawahar Nagar, Jagatpura and Sanganer. The region is a buzzing commercial centre with many industrial and commercial units. The place has its share of excellent schools, colleges, hospitals, multiplexes and malls which cater to the whole city. Malviya Nagar is well-connected to the public transport system.

Mansarovar is one of the peripheral regions of Jaipur. It is located in the south-west of Jaipur. The region forms an established part of the city. The Amanishah Nala separates Mansarovar from the mainland city. The entire region is well planned with parallel roads traversing at some points. The region has been developed and the population enjoy almost all the comforts of the city. The region has some fine markets, restaurants, hospitals and health clinics and educational institutes.

IT/ ITES Zone in Jaipur, Rajasthan

Spread over 750 acres, the IT/ TES Zone has been notified by the Ministry of Commerce. Set up exclusively for IT/ITES companies catering to the global markets, Mahindra World City, Jaipur offers a modern plug???n???play infrastructure including optic fibre cable network, quality satellite linkage as well as voice and data solutions.

This zone also offers a host of other advantages including:

> Strategic location, thereby leading to lower operational costs

> Developed land parcels for independent campuses of 5 acres and above

> Built-to-suit facilities for customised and tailor made solutions

The zone houses some of the leading customers like Deutsche Bank, Genpact, Infosys, MetLife, Nucleus Software, EXL, Systweak Software and The Phone Support.

Transportation

A regional bypass is proposed to serve Jaipur Region and its hinter land Jaipur District. It is ideal to have a 30 km road for Regional bypass. However a 38 km circular development with a length of 238 km is utopian by using the network parts of MDR /SH /NH in and around 238 km. On approach has been worked out and the following provision emerged for development of regional bypass.

The U-1 area and the U-2 area are proposed with a definite road network to accommodate various development proposals. The development proposed sector level roads and regional roads when compared with existing village road network the development was at snail space. In order to avoid no growth situation in case of non development of sector road the following proposals have been worked out. Instead of giving a definite road width creation of building line is emphasized. This pave way for the conversion of compatible uses from agricultural land to non-agriculture purposes by adhering to the building line. More over a definite time capsule cannot be given for the development of the rural area which may take at least 30 years from now.

The proposed regional bypass and ring road coupled with U-2 area road network serve majority of Satellite towns and growth centres provided in the development plan.

Finally the best substitute of the proposed ring road is to strengthen the existing connectivity of connecting all the growth nodes of the region. The map depicts the alternative routes acting as ring road. The present existing network of the region has already a good surface transport option. This option works out as an outer ring road concept, which is almost parallel to the existing ring road and connect all the potential towns of the region.

Jaipur bus rapid transit service

To cater to the city???s increasing traffic in the next 15 to 20 years, the Indian government approved Jaipur Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS) in August 2006. Under this, two corridors were proposed in Phase 1. First was Sikar Road to Tonk Road ??? North-South Corridor and the second was Ajmer Road to Delhi Road East-West Corridor. Work on other section of North-South Corridor and East-West Corridor has also commenced. The 42 km of BRTS phase 1 would cost Rs 469 crore. While the North-South corridor will be a length of 26 km, the other would be of 16 km.

Jaipur Metro

Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation is a young and vibrant organisation all set to change the picture of the Pink City of Jaipur. JMRC is an enormous PSU under GOVT of Rajasthan. It has been recorded fastest to conduct of trial run in India, so far. It was a historic moment for Jaipur on 18 September 2013. The city got its Metro and that too in a record time ??? two years and nine months.

The much awaited metro is going to be commenced on March 31, 2015 for which Nihal Chand Goyal, chairman-cum-managing director of the Jaipur Metro rail corporation visited metro stations of the phase IA to check the preparedness. So that they receives the clarification of the safety and others certificates for the commercial run.

E-governance

E-Mitra is an ambitious E-governance initiative of Government of Rajasthan (GoR) which is being implemented in all 33 Districts of the state using Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for convenience and transparency to citizens in availing various services of the Government and Private Sectors under a single roof at their door steps using an e- platform. The services are delivered via counters known as CSC (Common Service Centre) kiosks in Rural Areas and e-Mitra kiosks in urban areas and also online via www.emitra.gov.in. Hence, these counters provide services related to various departments in an integrated and easily accessible manner to people residing in rural as well as urban areas without any need for running around in government offices. The project has been operational since 2005. Initially it was functioning through a Client Server based Application Software developed by Department of IT&C. In 2010, the old Client Server Application was migrated to Web-based on-line e-Mitra application across all the 33 districts. Recently, a new generic module has been added to e-Mitra portal which allows end to end application and delivery of ???Digitally Signed Certificates??? such as Bonafide, Caste, Income, Solvency etc.

Culture and Tourism

Jaipur is a major tourist attraction amongst Indian as well as international travellers. It belongs to the tourist Golden Triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. It hosts several attractions like the City Palace, Govind Dev ji Temple, Vidhan Sabha, Birla Temple, several massive Rajput forts and so on. It also serves as a stepping stone for travelers heading to the desert cities of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Visitor is also attracted to the Hawa Mahal, Jal Mahal, City Palace, Amer Fort, Jantar Mantar, Nahargarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Sri kali Temple, Sanganeri Gate and the Jaipur Zoo. Cultural centres like Jawahar Kala Kendra and Ravindra Manch have helped promote the culture of the state of Rajasthan. Albert Hall Museum (Government Central Museum) hosts several arts and antiquities.

Sanganer is a town situated 16 km south of Jaipur, the capital of Indian state of Rajasthan. It is famous for textile printing, handmade paper industry, and for Jain temples. Sanganer prints are one of its own kinds, for the reason that patterns in bright colors are always printed on white backgrounds. Sanganeri Hand block printing received the geographical indication (GI) tag in 2010.

Bandhani is a type of tie-dye practiced mainly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word banda (to tie). Bandhani is also known as Bandhej or Tie Dye or Bandhni or Bandana, etc. as per the regional pronunciation. The main colours used in Bandhani are natural. In fact all colours in bandhani are dark, no light colour is used, and the background is mostly in black / red cloth.

The land of Jaipur has its own performing arts. The Jaipur Gharana for Kathak is widely popular and apparently an example of rich cultural heritage of Jaipur as far as performing arts is concerned. Tamasha is another such example.

The pink city Jaipur presents to you scrumptious cuisines that are known throughout India; dishes like Dal Bati Churma, Missi Roti, and sweets like Ghevar, Feeni, Gajak, Chauguni ke laddu, Moong Thal, to name a few. Rajasthani cuisine is full of nutrition since it???s made in ghee and butter; and is generally vegetarian.

Master Development Plan

The Master Development Plan-2025 covers all aspects of development including transportation, infrastructure (sewer, drainage, water and electricity), environmental protection, and land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, etc.). The Master Plan analyzes current demographic statistics and economic issues, factors to project growth scenarios, propose solutions that mitigate negative impacts of traffic, assess infrastructure capacity, and public service needs, and allocate land as needed to ensure adequate land availability and to be able to utilise them for both present and future needs of the residents.

Challenges

Population is one of the toughest challenges so far- growing pollution, congestion, energy guzzling, as public transport, walking and public health. Besides, to cope with the fast growing urban population, and meet its future needs, Jaipur needs to have sensible urban transformation, efficient citizen centric services, and a responsive civic system that can stimulate sustainable growth and improve the quality of lives of its residents. Another challenge of Jaipur is improving the damaged drainage system. Another important challenge, the Pink City faces is that of air pollution which has reached a critical level as a result of growing number of vehicles and resultant congestion. A proactive approach will help. With recent advances in technology, we can infuse our existing infrastructures with new intelligence. This means digitizing and connecting our systems, so they can sense, analyze and integrate data, and respond intelligently to the needs of their jurisdictions.

Source?? : Urbannewsdigest