Rajasthan | Gehlot’s classes in profligacy

Thousands of crores have been spent on beauty touches in Rajasthan’s Kota. An elegant new riverfront is the most recent addition to that frenzied beautification, although it has landed in an argument over allegedly flouting environmental norms. Amid criticism, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot determined to distance himself from the inauguration. But can he justify the wanton spending on different initiatives?

BILL OF DEVELOPMENT: The beautified Chambal riverfront in Kota

ISSUE DATE: Sep 25, 2023 | UPDATED: Sep 15, 2023 17:38 IST

A helical clover bridge feels like a modern factor proper out of some First World xanadu. This one, constructed at a value of Rs 42 crore, is in Rajasthan’s Kota, however it soars and twists balletically too, for a couple of kilometre, besides that it lands a number of metres from the place it began. Even extra mystifyingly, it soars over nothing: there’s no crossing or rail monitor or any type of obstruction beneath. Just a couple of minutes away, alongside the Chambal, a brand new riverfront was inaugurated with nice pomp on September 12—a pricey façade laid end-to-end over three kilometres of pure rock and soil like a pink stone shroud, leaving not even elements of the riverbed, not to mention a scrap of greenery. In its place have come up 26 spanking new ghats strung alongside imitation Rajputana architectural stylish. Turrets and chhatris within the native Hadauti model. An military of big statues, one in all which, a 25-feet Yogimudra, vanishes once you see it straight on. Another curiosity is each seen and audible: the world’s largest bell whose growth, they are saying, might be heard eight kilometres away and, coming in at 82 tonnes on the size, is not any bantamweight both. Goddess Chambal, a deity who’s thought of cursed and therefore isn’t worshipped, additionally will get a 242-feet-high statue of Vietnamese marble right here. The riverfront is studded liberally with replicas that stand like displaced metaphors, reminiscent of a highrise Red Fort or the Chinese Pagoda. Add a proposed boat cruise, a water park, a practice on tyres, golf carts, skating space, the world’s second-largest musical fountain, cafes, eating places, a industrial complexâ€æ in brief, it’s the total fairground cornucopia. Kota (North) MLA and Rajasthan city improvement minister Shanti Dhariwal, whose brainchild this frenzied beautification is, needed to outdo the Kashi Corridor and the Sabarmati riverfront and take Kota proper into the elite membership of Paris and London. Dumb-struck critics name it the “world’s only copycat heritage waterfront”.