Panna-Khajuraho-Jhansi Detailed Information and an Unplanned Trip
In this post I'll be detailing a few things about Panna, Khajuraho, Jhansi and the trip I took with my brother there.
Panna
It is a town and a
municipality in Madhya Pradesh, Indian. It is renowned for
its diamond mines. They also have a tiger reserve called Panna National Park.
The reserve houses a wide variety of animals. There are numerous hotels and jungle
lodges near the National Park. You can reach Panna from Khajuraho. Pandav falls and
Raneh falls are famous tourist visiting places during monsoons.
Located just 32 km from Panna
is Ajaygarh, an old town. There is an ancient fort named Ajaypal Maharaj. You
can visit many places here under the watch of the Indian Archaeological
Department.
There’s a huge group of
diamond pits here. These diamond mines are supervised by Diamond Mining Project
of National Mineral Development Corporation under Government of India (GOI). Every
year the mine lands are leased to potential miners. Panna’s district magistrate
collects all diamonds and auctions them in January. These auctions require a Rs.
5,000/- deposit by the public if they want to participate.
Reaching Panna
- Currently, Panna’s Airport
is not functional. The closest operational airport is Khajuraho.
- The nearest rail station is
Satna which is 75 kms away, Khajuraho which is 45 kms away.
- You can avail bus services from all parts of Madhya Pradesh and a few cities from other states such as Agra,
Allahabad Faridabad, New Delhi, Jhansi,
Kanpur, Nagpur, and
Gwalior. You
can get Luxury, Sleeper, or AC buses from Gwalior,
Indore, Bhopal, and
Jabalpur.
Khajuraho
Khajuraho is a small town that
houses the Khajuraho Group of Monuments. These are a collection of Jain temples
and Hindu temples located in Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India.
It is roughly 175 Kms (109 Miles) southeast of Jhansi.
The Khajuraho temples are a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are known for their erotic sculptures and their
Nagara-style architectural symbolization. Most were constructed between 950 and
1050 AD by the Chandela dynasty. Historical records show that by the 12th Century
there were 85 temples, of which only 25 temples have survived. The Khajuraho
Group of Monuments was built together and dedicated to Hinduism and Jainism.
Reaching Khajuraho
These monuments are located in Chatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India. The small town of Khajuraho has a population of about 20,000 people according to a 2001 Census.
You can reach Khajuraho by Khajuraho Airport, from Agra, Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai. The nearest railway station is roughly 6 Kms away from the temples.
Jhansi
Jhansi is a historic city in the Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh. It lies in the Bundelkhand region on the banks of Pahuj River,
and is the southern extreme of Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi
is the administrative headquarters of Jhansi
district and Jhansi
division. It is also known as the Gateway to Bundelkhand, and is situated
between the Pahuj and Betwa rivers. It has an average elevation of 285 meters (935
feet). It is about 415 kilometers (258 miles) from New
Delhi and 99 kilometers (62 miles) south of Gwalior.
The stone fort crowns a
neighboring rock and the original city (walled) grew around it. The ancient
name of the city was Balwantnagar. From 1817 to 1854, it was the capital of the
princely state of Jhansi,
ruled by Gurjar Rajas. The state was annexed by the British Governor General in
1854; Damodar Rao's claim to the throne was rejected, but Rani Lakshmibai ruled
it from June 1857 to June 1858.
Jhansi is well connected to all other major towns in
Uttar Pradesh by road and railway networks. The National Highways Development
Project (NHDP) has supported development of Jhansi. Jhansi
is also being developed as the defense corridor by the government, which will
boost the economy of the city and the region at the same time. Srinagar
to Kanyakumari North-South corridor passes closely to Jhansi and so does the East-West corridor;
consequently there has been a sudden rush of infrastructure and real estate
development in the city.
Jhansi was adjudged the third cleanest city of Uttar Pradesh and the fastest
moving city in the North Zone in Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings. A green-field
airport development has been planned. On August 28, 2015, Jhansi was selected among 98 cities for the
Smart City Initiative by the Government of India.
Reaching Jhansi
The city is well connected
to other parts of India
by railways and major highways.
RAILWAYS
Jhansi Junction: Jhansi
has its own division in the North Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. It
lies on the main Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Mumbai lines. The station code is JHS.
It is well connected by train services to all parts of the country, including
four metropolitan cities. There are direct trains to Agra,
Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bandra, Bangalore,
Bhopal, Bhusaval, Chennai, Delhi,
Gaya, Gorakhpur,
Guwahati, Gwalior, Hyderabad,
Indore, Jabalpur,
Jaipur, Jalgaon, Jammu and
Kashmir, Kanpur, Khajuraho,
Kolkata, Lucknow, Mahoba, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam
and other major towns.
ROADWAYS
Jhansi is located at the junction of these National
Highways: NH 27 from Gujarat to Assam;
NH 75 from Gwalior to Rewa via Chhatarpur; NH 44
from Jammu to
Kanyakumari; and NH 39. Thus, Jhansi
commands a strategic position in the roadways network as highways in five
different directions diverge from it.
The towns and major cities
connected to it are Agra, Allahabad,
Bhopal, Chhatarpur, Datia, Gwalior,
Kanpur, Lalitpur, New Delhi, Orchha, Sagar, Shivpuri, and Unnao
Balaji.
The north-south and
east-west corridors pass and cross each other only in Jhansi
and the city is also well connected to Kanpur, Lucknow and Madhya
Pradesh by road. The four lanes national highway is at the last stage of its
completion, giving a boom in infrastructure and other sectors in Jhansi and nearby areas.
AIRWAYS
Jhansi’s Airport is a military aviation base built in the
British era and is used by the Indian army and political visitors. Though there
are provisions for private aircraft to land, there are no civil aviation
operations. There had been a demand to make it operational for commercial
purposes in the 1990s and again in the 2000s.
The Uttar Pradesh
government announced the construction of an all new civil aviation base to
support tourism in Bundelkhand in April 2011. The Indian army maintains an
objection to extension of the military aviation. So, the government has
examined three different places other than army aviation base for the airport
in Jhansi.
Gwalior Airport is
the nearest airport from Jhansi
but has limited number of flights and facilities. Kanpur
Airport is 4 hours drive from Jhansi and is well connected with other metropolitan
cities in India.
There are plans to develop the Jhansi
airport under the UDAN scheme of regional connectivity of central government.
Jhansi-Lucknow-Jhansi route was selected in UDAN 2 but the airline has not been
selected yet. Jhansi-Agra and Jhansi-Khajuraho routes have been suggested by
the government for UDAN 3.There are still no plans to connect Jhansi
with Delhi, the
national capital and other cities like Mumbai in the south.
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