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| Home » Destinations Covered by Palace on Wheels » Jodhpur » Jodhpur Sightseeing » The Umaid Bhawan |
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The Umaid Bhawan |
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The Umaid Bhawan is one of the major tourist attractions in Jodhpur. This marvelous specimen of the
Rajasthani architecture was built as a private residence of the king of Jodhpur. The Umaid Bhawan was known as Chittar Palace owing to its location on the Chittar hills in Jodhpur. This is also an interesting fact that Chittar Hill is the highest point in the city of Jodhpur. Mahraja Umed Singh laid down the foundation stone of this palace on 18 November 1929. The long construction work of this palace came to its end in the year 1944. The royal family of Jodhpur first decided to construct this royal palace keeping the need of employment creation in mind.
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At the time when construction work for The Umaid Bhawan started the people of Jodhpur had very little employment opportunity. Continuous drought actually ruined the economy of Jodhpur. The plan of building this palace in Jodhpur was undertaken to provide employment opportunity and also drought relief to the poor people of Jodhpur.
Construction of The Umaid Bhawan
The construction of The Umaid Bhawan needed the labor of more than 5000 men. 16 years long work of 5000 men completed The Umaid Bhawan. The interesting fact about this palace is that mortar or any kind of binding materials were not used for the construction of this palace. The construction of The Umaid Bhawan followed the method of carved interlocking of positive and negative pieces of stones.
The communicational network of Jodhpur was also developed for the construction of The Umaid Bhawan. A special railway line was built to supply stones to the construction site of The Umaid Bhawan.
After the conclusion of The Umaid Bhawan this palace earned the distinction of becoming the biggest private residence in the world. The Umaid Bhawan had 347 rooms in it. The central dome of The Umaid Bhawan is 110 feet tall. Famous architect H V Lanchester designed The Umaid Bhawan. The architectural design of The Umaid Bhawan can be classified as Indo-Art-Deco style. The construction of this grand palace in Jodhpur incurred an expense of 94, 51, 565 rupees from the royal exchequer.
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