<p>Cities across the world have expressed their desire to be “15-minute cities”, which for generalization is initially referred to as the “X-minute” cities. This objective frequently forms a component of a proposition to promote cycling and walking in order to lower the corresponding emissions and to ensure a sustainable and healthy urban design. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for a minimum set of proximity-based services accessible by active travel, more studies are required to operationalize the concept of the “X-minute” contextual to specific urban landscapes in order to show which parts of the city can be accessed by its population on foot within a specific (15-minute) time threshold. Owing to the support of many academicians, urban planners and policymakers who believe that the “X-minute” city idea should be adopted by major metropolitan cities across the world, only very few studies have examined the existing urban cities from an “X-minute” city vantage point. In this paper, the “X-minute” approach is analysed with an assumed time threshold of “15-minutes” in the context of the city Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan. In this study, the authors elaborate on two major evaluation pillars: social and ecological; and the analyses focuses on determining how “15-minute” cities fits the legacy of existing cities as characterised by conventional planning principles. Subsequently, the findings of the authors demonstrate that the “15-minute” city threshold cannot always be taken for granted as the most suitable target, at least not in congested Indian cities. Additionally, the quantity and geographic distribution of the sites providing various urban services have a crucial role in determining the degrees of accessibility to the services. Finally, it is advised by the authors to revive the operational research on accessibility pillars and indicators in order to complicate the operationalization of the overall “X-minute” city concept.</p>