Modern Kota development: how the city changed from 2018 to 2023

In a few years, modern Kota development changed how the city looks and how people move through it. A concentrated push of public works, funded by the Government of Rajasthan and carried out with the local development authority, gave Kota a monumental riverfront, a very large new park, rebuilt junctions and a road network designed to run without traffic lights. For a city known for its industries and its coaching institutes, it was a deliberate attempt to become a place people visit for its own sake.

The signal-free road plan

The boldest idea was to remove traffic signals from the main roads. Instead of red lights, the busiest junctions were rebuilt with flyovers, elevated roads and underpasses so that traffic could keep flowing. For commuters this meant shorter journeys across the city; for visitors it means that getting from the station to the old city or the riverfront is usually quick. The project and its effects are covered in detail in how Kota became a traffic-signal-free city.

Oxygen City Park

Oxygen City Park, also called Kota City Park, was created as a new green space on a large scale, with water bodies, jogging and cycling tracks, a densely planted area and family attractions. It quickly became one of the most used public spaces in the city. See our guide to Oxygen City Park and new Kota.

Junctions and beautification

Major circles such as Aerodrome Circle were redesigned as landmark junctions with landscaping, fountains and lighting, and roads, dividers and public spaces across the city were landscaped. Around Kishore Sagar, the Seven Wonders Park with its replicas of world monuments became a popular evening spot.

The Chambal Riverfront

The centrepiece is the Kota Chambal Riverfront, a long promenade of themed ghats, carved gates and large sculptures on both banks of the Chambal, opened to the public in 2023. It is now the most visited attraction in the city.

The numbers behind the headline projects

Rajasthan Tourism gives a few concrete figures for the biggest projects:

• Chambal Riverfront: developed on both banks of the Chambal for about 2.75 km, from the Kota Barrage to the Nayapura bridge, with 26 ghats on different themes. A World Heritage Ghat has replicas of nine famous buildings, there is a musical fountain, and the riverfront claims India’s first LED garden.
• City Park (Oxygen Park): about 30 hectares on Jhalawar Road in the middle of the city, around 85 percent of it densely planted, with a canal of about 1.25 km through the middle, a kids zone, an open gym, a botanical garden and boating for children.

These are promoters’ and tourism-department figures; treat claims such as “first” and “largest” as descriptions by the builders rather than independently verified records.

Smart city and new public institutions

Kota was one of the 98 cities named in 2015 for India’s Smart Cities Mission and was listed at 67th place in the first round of results, according to Wikipedia. Alongside the road and park projects, the forest department opened Abheda Biological Park in December 2021, built to take over from the city’s small old zoo with larger, more natural enclosures.

What it means for visitors

For a visitor, the practical effect is that Kota now has more to do in the evenings and with children than it did a decade ago. A typical first evening is the riverfront, followed by Seven Wonders Park and the lakeside at Kishore Sagar; mornings work well for City Park or the biological park. Our guide to places to visit in Kota with family and the 1 day in Kota itinerary show how to fit the new and old sights together.

The heritage city has not gone away. The Garh Palace, the old walled-city gates and the temples are still there, and many of the new projects sit right beside them. That mix of old Kota and new Kota is now part of what Kota is famous for.

Approximate timeline

The dates below show the broad development period. Individual flyovers and underpasses opened at different times, and the official announcements of the state government and the Kota Development Authority are the reference for exact dates.

Period	Project
From 2019	Signal-free road plan: flyovers, elevated roads and underpasses at major junctions
2020 to 2022	Work on underpasses and flyovers across the city
2021 to 2023	Oxygen City Park
Around 2022	Aerodrome Circle redesign and city beautification
2023	Chambal Riverfront opened to the public

What it means for visitors

• The riverfront and City Park are now as much a part of a Kota trip as the palace and the lake.
• Getting around is faster than in many cities of a similar size, which makes it easy to combine heritage sights with the new attractions in one day.
• The new projects sit close to the old ones: the Garh Palace, the old city gates and the river are minutes from the new promenade.

For the longer view of how Kota got here, read the history of Kota and the story of Kota as the coaching capital of India.