The best time to visit is September to March. Summers should be avoided. Rains are beautiful too (July to September)
Pleasure resort and capital of the Gond Kings during the 12th century, Jabalpur was later the seat of the Kalchuri dynasty. The Marathas held sway over Jabalpur until 1817, when the British wrested it from them and left their impression on the spacious cantonment with its colonial residences and barracks. Today Jabalpur is an important administrative, industrial and business center of MP and India. Population wise ranks 27th in the country.
JABALPUR- Is an ancient city in central India situated in the heart of India on shores of holy river Narmada and lying in plains of tributaries Hiran and Gour and Ken and Sone. Narmada River valley having world famous Marble Rocks the only of its kind in the world where the whole river flows for nearly 2 Kms. in between varied coloured and tinted marble rocks with a deep water fall. Its cardinal point are 23 degree 10'N latitude and 79 degree 57' E longitude with altitude of 393 meters mean sea level.
Jabalpur is a big Defence and Military Center having Army Officers school (Now College of Defence Management) where veteran military Generals took training. Also it has large Defence factories like Gun Carriage Factory, Ordnance Factory, Vehicle Factory, Grey Iron Foundry, EME workshop, Central Ordnance Depot, Signal's center and Army Area Head Quarters with 2 Lt General rank officer's. Besides there is big Cantonment and M.E.O. Canteen stores Deptt etc.
Jabalpur is seat of Madhya Pradesh High Court (having Hon. Justice M.Hidayatullah and later vice President of India as the first chief justice.) It has produced famous judges like Hon Justice V.R. Sen, Justice A.P. Sen, J.B. Sen, J.S. Verma, R.K. Tankha and several others besides Hon. Justice Gulab Gupta who has been Chairman of the M.P. Human Rights Commission and Vice Chanceller of Rani Durgavati University.
Jabalpur also has the headquarters of West Central Railway Zone, M.P. State Electricity Board, Homeguards and some Government Departments of Centre and State. The Telecom factory, Telegraph workshop and Bharat Ratna Dr. Bheemrao Ambedkar Telecom Training Centre and other Postal Departments, Survey of India etc. are several offices worth mentioning.
Jabalpur has been and is great education centre having two Universities Rani Durgavati University and Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University and having about 30 colleges with all faculties like engineering, medical, veterinary, teacher's training, arts, science, commerce, law, theology etc.The old Roberston College is more than 135 yrs old, besides 87 years old Spence Training College for teachers. Recently the Central Govt. has proposed to establish Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Jabalpur.
VINOBA BHAVE the modern saint philosopher of India christened this city as SANSKAR DHANI- the capital of various cultural influences. He was impressed by its cosmopolitan character and communal harmony. The city has sizeable population of people from Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and South India who live in total harmony peace and add richness to the life in the city. One can also see the fusion of cultures in this city.
Jabalpur has also given to the world, philosophers like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Transcendental Meditation fame and Osho (Bhagwaan Rajneesh). Jabalpur has been centre of ancient music with music Colleges and great Cultural centre for arts, drama and has produced several famous musicians, dramatists, cinema actors, mono players, magicians etc. In sports it has been buzzing with activities for nearly a century. Famous J.E.A.A. Tournament and other national tournaments are regularly held. Col. Sir Navil Francis first designed snooker (Billiards) in 1875 at Jabalpur. The table is the pride of Nurbbuda Club. In cricket Shree Chandu Sarwate won Ranji Trophy and represented Indian team against England, Australia and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Women also had been great sports persons in Jabalpur and Avinash Sidhu (Awarded Vikram Award in 1975), Madhu Yadav and others have made mark in sports.
Industrially it has now four Industrial Estates with several small and medium scale industries. The largest among Cottage industries is the Biri manufacturing (No mechanisation anywhere). Since last 10 years Readymade Garment industry has made its mark. There are around 300 small and medium units manufacturing Salwar Suits, Shirts etc. being marketed all over India. Due to lack of infrastructure large industries have not come up as yet.
Jabalpur is well connected by air, train and road.
Kingfisher Airlines operates daily flights from Delhi to Jabalpur & have also started daily service from Indore. Indian Airlines operates flights four days a week from Delhi to Jabalpur.
Jabalpur is well-connected with superfast trains and express trains from Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bhopal, Bandhavgarh (Umaria), Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Patna, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Goa, Jaipur, Nagpur, New Delhi, Varanasi & Patna.
Airport Name is Dumna Airport.This airport is 7-8 KM from CMM.
The national Highway (Varanasi-Kanyakumari Road NH7, Jabalpur-Jaipur Road NH12) passes through Jabalpur and there are daily bus services from Jabalpur to Nagpur, Katni, Jaipur, Gwalior, Bhopal etc.
You can rent a taxi to go to places like Bheraghat, Bandhavgarh and Kanha. These should be available at the Railway station or at the hotels. Cycle rickshaws are by far the most common means of transportation inside the city.
In order to hire local taxi for local use in Jabalpur & its near-by places visit local bus-stand or websites of jabalpur travel agents. Before taking any taxi service it is necessary to take quotations from more than one taxi-providers and also keep in mind the credibility of Taxi provider. Some prominent taxi providers of Jabalpur are: Bhatia Taxi, Marble Travels, Ervina Travels, Indus Excursion , Wild Expeditions, Singh Travels
This small place of Jabalpur situated on the banks of river Narmada and widely famous for its marble rocks is at a distance about 25 Km from Jabalpur by road. Soaring in glittering splendour, the marble rocks at Bhedaghat rise to a hundred feet on either side of the Narmada. The serene loveliness of the scene is one of cool quiet, the sunlight sparkling on the marble-white pinnacles and casting dappled shadows on the pellucid waters. Sunlight, now glancing from a pinnacle of snow-white marble reared against the deep blue of the sky as from a point of silver ; touching here and there with bright lights the prominences of the middle heights; and again losing itself in the soft bluish grays of their recesses_c.. Here and there the white saccharine limestone is seamed by veins of dark green or black volcanic rock; a contrast which only enhances, like a setting of jet, the purity of the surrounding marble.
The famous waterfall is located just 25 km from Jabalpur. The waterfall is known as Dhuandhar ('Dhuan' is the Hindi word for smoke) since the water droplets at the fall go above in concentrated mass and crete illusion of vapours.
Situated atop a hill rock and approached by a long flight of steps,the Chausat Yogini Temple commands a singularly beautiful view of the Narmada flowing through the jagged gorge of Marble Rocks (Bhedaghat). Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this 10th century temple has exquisitely carved stone figures of deities belonging to the Kalchuri period. According to a local legend,this ancient temple is connected to the Gond Queen Durgavati's palace through an underground passage.
Certainly the best jungle resort in India is GTV Resort(Phone No. +91 7627 265314, Web Site- http://www.gtvresort.com). It is the best resort in Bandhavgarh. Apart from this their are many resorts in Bandhavgarh like: KumKum Home, Gitanjali Hotel, Pawan Hotel, Tiger Lodge,Kolkata Kutir, Madhya Pradesh Tourism resort: White Tiger Forest Lodge, Bagh Vihar etc.
Built by the Gond ruler, Raja Madan Shah, in 1116 atop a rocky hill, the fort dominates the skyline and provides a panoramic view of the town and the country side around it.
There are a lot of restaurants and small road side shops that offer a lot of different varieties of food. The Chowpatti in Civic center offers different varieties of food stalls including bhels, sandwiches, dosas, chinese, etc. Prakash, a local chaat vendor is famous for his aloo-tikkis. You can get some the best indian -chinese food at Clock Tower and Kamling. Navneeta, Traffic Jam, Arihant Palace, etc. are nice restaurants for dinner. At nights the small vendors near fuhara serve tasty food and desserts like lassi, rabri and khova jalebi.
Many hotels also have good restaurants.
You can use Jabalpur as base station for Kanha Kisli National Forest, Pench National Forest and Bandhavgarh Park.