State govt sets March 31 deadline to implement Walled City heritage plan

Jaipur: The govt has set March 31, 2026 as the deadline to implement the Special Area Heritage Development Plan (SAHDP) for protecting and enhancing Jaipur's Walled City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Officials said that despite budget allocations for 2024-25 and repeated warnings from UNESCO over delays, the policy remained pending for nearly two years. The Local Self Government (LSG) Department, the nodal agency for the plan, assigned the tourism department to frame its structure. Efforts gathered pace after a recent review meeting in which chief secretary V Srinivas directed officials to expedite implementation. Chief town planner of the LSG department, R K Gupta, said the process is in its final stages. "We have set a deadline for March 31, 2026. If everything works fine, the state govt would implement the SAHDP for areas in and around the Walled City within this financial year," Gupta said. UNESCO has repeatedly expressed concern over delays. In its 2025 State of Conservation report, the World Heritage Committee set a deadline of Dec 1, 2026 for implementation of the SAHDP. A senior govt official associated with the 2019 World Heritage inscription of Jaipur's Walled City said the previous Congress govt had introduced a heritage plan and created a heritage cell under the then Jaipur Municipal Corporation (Heritage) for preservation work. "However, the old SAHDP lacked a proper enforcement mechanism. Instead of revising it, the BJP govt chose to frame a fresh SAHDP for the Walled City. The govt also needs to strengthen the heritage cell once the plan is implemented," the official said.