jaipur for a state with rich heritage as rajasthan preservation in view of rapid urbanization and consequent destruction of its historical monuments has become paramount moving a step beyond physical preservation the government has started digital preservation of its heritage in a oneofitskind project in the countrythe project which began in the last quarter of 2016 has already digitally scanned seven historical monuments inch by inch on a 11 scale to be preserved for posteritypreservation involves a unique set of challenges as one of the most crucial facets of the process is to keep the cultural heritage intact several projects have been undertaken across the globe to preserve culture and heritage taking the lead in india rajasthan which is home to ancient forts and architectural marvels is preserving them to attract more tourists with the help of architectural model and 3d walkthrough videos these are interactive and have informative games weaved around them these will help students and history lovers know more about the culture and heritage of rajasthan in a fun way said akhil arora commissioner principal secretary department of information technology communication doitctechnically supported by doitc and autodesk inc this is a novel initiative to recreate heritage structures through the lidar scanning technology using 3d with special cameras fixed on dronesaccording to the department it is more a digital preservation on a large scale where building information modeling bim will provide accurate measurement of structuresthe project could dovetail the project for creating a 3d city backed by chief minister vasundhara rajes initiative rajasthan state gis application rajdhaara it aims to establish an effective and integrated gis infrastructure of the state to enable good governance in the context of smart city the 3d city along with the national heritage city development and augmentation yojana hriday scheme can work towards the holistic development of heritage cities said aroraso far autodesk has completed asbuilt 3d models of albert hall museum jantar mantar hawa mahal udaipur city palace jaipur city palace and the seven gates of the walled city in jaipur and while that of amber fort is nearing completion the kumbhalgarh fort is next in the pipelinenearly 25 historical monuments will be covered under the project over a hundred other places of importance will also be digitized with the town planning and disaster management perspective said tatjana dzambazova senior product manager emerging technologies autodeskwhile the 3d walkthrough videos will help tourists experience the old world with just a click the digitization will go a long way in preserving history and safe guarding monuments against damagein case of natural calamity this information will come in handy to restore damaged monuments to its true statebesides new buildings structures coming up around heritage monuments too can be modelled on them so as to be in sync the project will also help architecture students and add yet another aspect to tourism in the state arora said