New City

It was during the reigns of Maharaja Ram Singh (1835-1880), that the saturated and overpopulated city of Jaipur started expanding beyond the fortifying walls. This led to the division of Jaipur into old city (within the city wall) and new city (outside the city wall). With time, many civic amenities, modern structures and bazaars sprung up in this part of Jaipur that negatively impacted the extensive and systematic planning of the old town.

Though all the historical monuments of Jaipur are located in the old city, there are quite a good number of tourist attractions in the new city too. Ram Niwas Public Gardens on Jawaharlal Nehru Road is a sprawling garden which was commissioned by the Maharaja. It is a nice picnic spot. Moti Dungri Fort once served as a prison, but is now owned by the royal family. It is banned for public viewing.

Albert Hall is another historical site here. It was specially built for the Prince of Wales, when he paid a visit in Jaipur in the year 1876. It is one of the best attractions of the new city, beautified with British and Indian styling elements and enveloped by well laid out gardens. It now serves as the Central Museum. There are other museums too located in this part of the city, which include the Modern Art Gallery in Ravindra Manch Building, the Science Museum and the Birla planetarium near the Statue Circle.

Lakshmi Narayan Temple, located at J.Nehru Road, showcases a perfect example of modern temple architecture. It is one of the many such temples built across the country, by the well known industrialist group of the country, the Birlas. It sees a lot of visitors and tourists coming to bow their heads in front of the life size idol of Lord Lakshmi Narayan, carved out of marble. The temple also has figures of deities, that belong to other faiths and religions too, which makes it one of the few secular temples in India. Another popular temple in this area is of Lord Ganesha. It witnesses crowds of devotees, specially on Wednesday.