In an attempt to improve the appearance of the Walled City, Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has decided to undertake a beautification project of a selected number of lanes in the area. As per the reports, the civic body is working to repair and beautify more than 120 lanes of the famous Heritage Walkway. While the repair work was already set in motion earlier, the outbreak of COVID had put a barrier in its progress. With the work being resumed by the JMC now, this project is likely to conclude by February 2022.

Project to cost about ₹2.5 crore

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Estimated to cost around ₹2.5 crores, this campaign includes cleaning the lanes, repairing water pipes, broken walls of houses along with sewer chambers in the selected lanes. The funding for this project has been secured by Jaipur Smart City Limited whereas JMC-Heritage has been chosen as the working agency. Notably, in 2015, the Heritage Walkway was developed by the Jaipur Civic Body in Ward 72. Starting from Chaura Rasta, this walkway ends at the Rajasthan School of Arts in Kishanpole.

While the authorities aim to give a facelift to the city by undertaking this project, residents believe that cleaning selective lanes will not make much difference in the long run. Notably, the Walled City houses over 6000 dirty lanes. However, as per the officials, the civic body does not have enough funds to clean up all the dirty lanes at present which is why they've chosen a few lanes currently.

Lanes created to facilitate ventilation are now covered in garbage

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Founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, Jaipur enjoys the tag of being the first planned city of India. Designed with the help of Indian architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, Jaipur showcases a variety of unique design details. These lanes, which will now be cleaned up and renovated are one of the features of Jaipuri architecture. These dirty lanes refer to the spaces that were left between houses to ensure proper ventilation in each house. While these lanes serve their main purpose, they have mostly been used as garbage dumping grounds by the people.

With inputs from the Times of India