Future of Delhi

A.K.Jain

Today, Delhi stands at the crossroads. The choice is either taking a road to indiscriminate,
uncontrolled development and slide towards doom, or as a world class city, if handled with vision
and care. Having realised the slow pace of planned development and increasing gap between the
demand and supply, it is necessary that the role of public agencies in acquisition of land,
development and disposal is reviewed. Considering the needs of the city, it is appropriate that the
public agencies play the role of a facilitator rather than that of a builder and developer. The
experience of other states like Maharashtra (Mumbai), Tamilnadu (Chennai) and West Bengal
(Calcutta) strengthens this idea. The involvement of private developers will help in pooling of
resources and expertise, which is abundantly available and had been persistently contributing in
city’s development. This is even more relevant in view of the fact that acquiring private lands for
implementing the development plan is becoming extremely difficult. In pursuit of implementing
the intentions, governments have resorted to using the power of eminent domain, however, the
results are not so encouraging.

To ensure planned development and to avoid delays and litigation in land acquisition, it is
necessary to seek a suitable alternative to the past policy of large scale acquisition and disposal of
land. The approach should be able to mobilise the private sector in urban development and
housing, while giving due regard to the interests of the poor migrants. Also regulatory and
enforcement arrangements have to be strengthened to arrest the growth of unauthorised colonies
and jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) clusters. The concept of land pooling for agricultural land areas and
Transferable Development Rights for urban areas can provide viable alternatives to large-scale
land acquisition.

So far the focus of NCR Plan had been to depopulate, decongest and decentralise Delhi.
However, this approach has not worked as envisaged. It is necessary to redefine the goals and lay
more emphasis on development, regeneration and other opportunity zones, rather than restrictive
approach. This will need mobilizing the ULBs to operate beyond their administrative
boundaries/NCTD, who can collaborate in taking up various projects outside Delhi for
development of opportunity areas, work centres, industries, wholesale markets etc. The new
Regional Plan should, as much as not employ the terms such as, shifting, relocation and
decongestion, which smack of painful enforcement and policing, but should invent and open up
new opportunity areas, which offer better prospects and incentivise people, business and industry
to shift themselves by choice.

There is a clear need to improve the quality of life of the people and physical condition of
existing housing areas/dwelling units for the needs of existing as well as incoming population.
To increase in supply of dwelling units, the participation of public and private partnership, co-
operative societies etc. is essential. The role of the government agencies should be more as
facilitator than provider for all income categories except urban poor housing. It is necessary to
ensure adequate provision of dwelling units at city level for EWS and LIG. Optimum utilisation
and intensity of urban land is a critical issue in view of limited supply of land resource. An
innovative land policy should be applied, for increase in supply of dwelling units by public and
private sector and land owners individually or as partners in development. This will also help in
reduction of housing price and competitive quality improvement
In view of the undue strain on the resources and services, the city has to be based on the concept
of re-cycling (e.g. water, solid waste, land), regeneration (dilapidated, old areas), recovery
(wastelands, encroached areas), restructuring (networks, landuse, transport), recharging
(traditional areas) and rejuvenation (river, water bodies parks etc.). The land use should interface
with an efficient and comfortable multiple public transport system. It is time to think of
ambitious schemes to minimise transmission losses, theft and leakages. One of such proposal
could be laying an underground pipeline/tunnel to transport water from Yamuna (Tajewala) and
Ganga to Delhi, which will supplement or replace the Yamuna and Ganga canals.

It is envisages to formulation of special development plans for the conservation and

improvement of heritage complexes, zones and parks, with minimum intervention, but to upgrade
the area to its organic, pristine glory. Besides heritage zones, there are large areas in the old city
and urban villages which need redevelopment, upgradation and better services. For this there is a
need to involve the stakeholders/owners and provide necessary incentives including innovative
development controls, so that owners may themselves initiate such proposals. Some of such
options could be the following :

a) Removing distortions of permissible FAR (which is allowed much less than what
is existing) and land use.
b) Transferable Development Rights to be used in designated areas.
c) Public facilities to be provided on reduced scale and/or through Accommodation
Reservation (AR) technique.
d) Permitting compatible mixed landuse.
e) Amalgamation of plots be allowed to promote redevelopment.
f) Removing legal complications and bottlenecks and simplifying redevelopment
procedures and approvals.

Recognising the opportunities and strengths of public housing transformation and realising the
potential weakness and threats, it is necessary to devise a comprehensive system to allow
additions, alteration and additional covered area in the public housing areas. This requires a
facilitating approach. To facilitate urban renewal of public housing complexes more than 20
years old, the submission of original building plans may not be insisted upon and power of
attorney transfers may be acceptable. Such system will facilitate the Resident Welfare
Association and Group Housing Societies to make better use of dilapidated, derelict old buildings
and housing, which have become redundant with fast changing life-style and economic
prosperity. The present development control framework is not conducive to promote low-income
housing through cooperative/private sector. The difficulty arises in balancing FAR and density
and there is generally gross under utilisation of FAR for EWS/LIG housing. As such, it is
recommended to regulate development controls only through FAR so that use of limited urban
land can be maximised. It is also proposed to review the standards, like minimum width of roads,
parks, standards of community facilities and open space etc. which are realistic and affordable. In
this regard, IS-8888 should be incorporated in the local codes/planning regulations.

Movement and cybernetics are the lifeline of the human settlement metabolism, which should
have a definite directional growth pattern with vigorous networks for mobility of people, goods,
power and information. The conventional polynodal and polycentric growth pattern is centripetal
and gives rise to fragmented and scattered growth. Besides, it leads to the problem of
transportation, as the central transport arteries tend to choke, and also enhance disparities in land
values. Rather than resting on artificial delineation and hierarchy of self-contained physical units,
the growth should take place according to new corridors of mass movement. This will mean
development of employment corridors along the fast transit system that is along intra-urban metro
network. This would not only solve the enormous problems of mass transportation but would
generate a dynamic potential for growth of employment. The same approach could be adopted
for the development of the National Capital Region. Rather than development of isolated and
scattered ring towns and urban growth centres for the dispersal of economic activities from Delhi,
a more practical approach would be a continuous and homogeneous development along the
railway corridors emanating from Delhi. As such it is necessary to study the influence zones area
by area all along MRTS corridor (say 500-meter), and delineate 50 to 200meter wide intervening
public activity zone (commercial, mixed use, community facilities etc.) by restructuring the land
uses.

As a new concept in planning, instead of conventional drainage, the concept of ‘zero runoff’ has
been mooted by using a series of retention ponds. Such ponds/reservoirs and sediments traps are
located in the catchment zones on low-lying ground, which is earmarked for greenery. The
concepts of watershed development, harvesting and conservation of rainwater and recharging of
underground water have to be adopted as the basis of planning, design and development.

Delhi has a parallel economy in the form of informal sector. This vernacular and disorganised
sector with highly reduced needs of space, services and investments is a major source of
employment in the economic fabric of the city. As such it is has envisaged to adopt a multi-
pronged approach to cater to this sector, as given below:-

♦ Earmarking of ‘Hawking’ and ‘No Hawking’ Zones in association with the RWA at
neighbourhood/cluster level.

♦ The existing prominent weekly markets to be identified and re-planned.

♦ New areas for informal trade in form of Janta markets to be developed and provided with
basic amenities in housing, commercial, institutional and industrial areas.

♦ Provision of common basic services, like toilets on a permanent basis.

♦ Institutionalising this sector by adoption. The norms of space for hawkers/vendors in the
Master Plan.

♦ To evolve innovative designs of stalls, push-carts and mobile vans of various sizes and with
cleaning facilities.

There is a clear need of paradigm shift in the planning process and to make it more participatory.
It is really gratifying that professional bodies like Indian Institute of Architects have initiated a
dialogue, which would certainly bring in new thoughts and vision for the future of Delhi