One of India’s prime tourist attractions, the princely forts and palaces of Rajasthan state are hoping for a new lease on life — literally.
More than 2 million domestic and foreign tourists visit Rajasthan every year for a glimpse of the state’s royal past and to experience the architectural legacy of kingdoms that lost their identity when India became a republic.
Topping the must-see list in the desert state are sites like the majestic Mehrangarh Fort, which dominates the skyline over the city of Jodhpur, and Jaipur’s 16th-century Amber Palace.
Photo: AFP
However, thousands more historic forts, palaces and private mansions, or “havelis,” lie unvisited and uncared for — victims of decades of neglect.
Shortly after Indian independence in 1947, many passed from private to public hands, either sold or ceded to the state government by their erstwhile princely owners who were unable to afford their upkeep.
Now the state authorities — who also struggled to fund their renovation and maintenance — are offering them up for rent.
Photo: AFP
Target tenants are domestic and foreign hospitality groups with the financial muscle to turn the properties into heritage hotels for well-heeled travelers.
“We are ready to lease the heritage properties. Those interested can sign a long-term rent agreement with us and they are free to convert them into hotels or any other interesting business venture,” Rajasthan Tourism Secretary Usha Sharma said.
“Our idea is to save the heritage forts and palaces and also promote tourism,” Sharma said.
Photo: AFP
It’s an ambitious plan and, some say, a deeply flawed one, given the state of some of the properties on the rental list.
Ruined ramparts, once used to keep out Mughal invaders, now provide a prime spot for locals to hang out their washing lines, while many properties have been stripped of their carved sandstone slabs, which end up in local markets.
The concept of “heritage hotels” in India originated in Rajasthan as owners unable to afford the upkeep of their ancestral homes converted them into hotels, sometimes with private partners or with the help of the government.
Rajasthan currently accounts for 128 of the 178 heritage hotels spread across the country.
“Heritage hotels are always seen as something romantic. People from all over the world love to experience the glory of the bygone era,” said Gaj Singh, secretary of the Heritage Hotel Association.
“The idea to lease these places is very interesting. They are untapped assets and have the potential for massive growth,” said Singh, who owns six heritage properties in Rajasthan.
However, the government’s initiative has been clouded by a combination of poor infrastructure and excessive bureaucracy that has put off a number of potential takers for the leaseholds.
“These properties are extremely maintenance-heavy and are mired in complications at various levels,” said Ashutosh Pednekar, the administrator of Alwar district, which has the largest concentration of forts in the country.
“A lot more needs to be done by the government to put them to good use. Private investors cannot do it alone,” he said.
One group that has made a go of it is the Neemrana Hotels heritage chain, which runs more than 20 properties across India and decided to take on the 19th-century Tijara Fort, 200km from Jaipur.
“We appreciated the government’s plan, managed to acquire the lease of Tijara Fort and started our work,” said Aman Nath, co-chairman of the Neemrana group.
Despite signing a 60-year lease agreement in 2005, it took the group several years to get final possession of the property.
The original agreement was that the government would be responsible for providing basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water.
“But everything is off-loaded on us,” Nath said. “We paid for the electricity and got the cables laid. We bought the land, drilled the water, did the piping and built the access road.”
“We are doing all the work and the government is still on our back saying: Why is it not happening on time?” he said.
Sharma said that the government was firmly committed to the leasing program.
“I don’t think there is any problem. We are doing the best we can,” she said.
Meanwhile, most of the properties listed for lease remain derelict and ignored.
“Some forts have simply vanished — their stones taken by villagers to build their own home,” Pednekar said.
“Only the names are left now,” he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day