Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria paid floral tributes to the scion of the erstwhile Mewar royal family, Arvind Singh Mewar who was an old associate of decades.

Kataria reached Udaipur Monday morning to pay tributes and bid adieu to his ‘royal’ schoolmate who passed away in the City Palace here on Sunday.

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Paying glowing tributes to “old pal”, Kataria said -“SriJi’s departure for his heavenly abode is a huge loss to Udaipur and irreparable personal loss to me. I had close association while pursuing schooling, higher education, and later in political life.”

Kataria said “SriJi Arvind Singh’s contribution to the development of Udaipur and making it the most favourite destination for tourists from all over the world, will be remembered by all forever.

Kataria, a native of this lake city, said ” It was SriJi’s father late Maharana Bhagwat SinghJi, who dreamt of evolving Udaipur as a hot tourist destination. He also began to work on this cherished mission, which had later been taken up admirably by his ‘able son’, successfully transforming Udaipur into one of the most attractive “lake cities” of the world.

”It was not only tourism, the people of Udaipur will remember the former royal. Arvind SinghJi was equally aware of the need for development in other arenas,” Governor Kataria said.

“Works on the Devas (II) project were threatened to be stalled for certain reasons, mainly on the issue of unpaid arrears of Rs 50 crore to the contractor.

“On my request, SriJi had led our efforts for the resumption of the project. He had led a delegation to Jaipur to hold talks with the state government. We had spoken to the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, requesand ted him for the immediate release of arrears of Rs 50 crore to the contractor. The CM had accepted and ordered immediate release of funds that saved the project”, Kataria recalled.

The octogenarian royal passed away here on Sunday after a protracted illness. He was cremated with state honours at the Mahasatia royal cremation grounds here this afternoon.

His son Lakshyaraj Singh lit the funeral pyre. His nephew Nathdwara MLA Vishwaraj Singh Mewar and a galaxy of dignitaries were present.