Jaipur: Yet another property developed by the Jaipur Development Authortity (JDA) is being transferred to the tourism department as the civic body has failed to make the venture sustainable. After the Gandhi Darshan Museum inside Central Park, now the civic body has handed over the Tourist Facility Centre on Choura Rasta inside the Walled City to the tourism department. The AC Market in Raja Park, Nehru Palace on Tonk Road and Vidhyadhar Nagar are still lying vacant owing to unavailability of basic facilities. Even JDA is facing a tough time to sale or give shops on rent inside the underpass of the Jawahar Circle. It took almost seven years for the JDA to rope in an agency to run the restaurant – turned from a century old pump house inside the Pani Pench Bird Park. With lack of business, the restaurant may close down any day. Still, the JDA is venturing into developing more commercial properties beyond its expertise. JDA now wants to convert all its community centres into multi purpose community hubs. Intitally, the authorities have zereod in on five community centers. The list includes two community centres in Malviya Nagar, and one each in Vaishali Nagar, Vidyadhar Nagar and Triveni Nagar.Officials from the tourism department claimed that following a recent visit by the deputy chief minister Diya Kumari, the state govt forced the JDA to hand over this facility to the tourism department. Kumari is also the tourism minister of the state.“This was done to ensure that the expertise of the tourism department can run this facility smoothly,” an official from the tourism department stated.The centre was inaugurated on Dec 20, 2015, by former chief minister Vasundhara Raje after spending Rs 85 crore, but it has remained closed for the last five years since private parties running services inside the facility abandoned it as ‘non-profitable’. Jaipur-based conservation architect Kavita Jain designed the building.Confirming the developments, Upendra Singh Shekhawat, deputy director (tourism project), stated that the govt has already completed the formalities to hand over the facility to the tourism department from JDA.“We will soon start tenders to run the different facilities inside this centre. This centre will facilitate both foreign and domestic tourists visiting Jaipur,” Shekhawat stated.Tourism department also runs a Tourist Information Centre from the RTDC headquarters at the Khasa Kothi Circle.
JDA washing its hands of projects it failed to sustain | Jaipur News
