New Delhi: Within the last decade, Delhi has witnessed major redevelopment projects, including the Central Vista revamp, the overhauling of the Pragati Maidan area, and rebuilding the government housing colonies.
Construction activities have only gone up with redevelopments of parks and roads gathering pace as G20 Summit scheduled in September. Some believe it is a continuation of a trend that started with the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) which changed the face of Delhi, by rehauling the urban infrastructure through the construction of flyovers, pedestrian bridges and sporting facilities like behemoth stadiums. A similar theme was last seen during the Asian Games in 1982, town planners point out.
According to K.T. Ravindran, the former dean of Amity University’s RICS School of Built Environment, large-scale building projects came into vogue around the CWG.
In 2012, the central government announced its plan to raze the existing quarters in government colonies and to replace them with multi-storey buildings at prime locations of south Delhi.
The same year, there were reports of a phased redevelopment of Pragati Maidan to increase exhibition space of Delhi’s landmark by almost five times.
According to Tariq Mujib, associate director at Arcop, which gave shape to the revamped Pragati Maidan, many such projects were conceptulised under the previous government but the current dispensation has taken it up on a “war footing” and that’s why one could feel that a lot of redevelopment was suddenly happening in the city.
A look at redevelopment projects
The reasons for redeveloping Central Vista, a project that was conceived even before the start of the millennium but was initiated much later in 2019, are the same as in the case of Pragati Maidan or even the residential spaces for the central government employees — underutilisation of prime land and the need for more space and contemporary facilities, say planning experts.
A researcher from the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had earlier told ThePrint that both the Parliament building and the central government offices like the Shastri and Krishi Bhawans were old and couldn’t keep up with the increasing demand for space.
Additionally, they needed to be equipped with modern-day facilities. Both of these couldn’t happen just through ‘retrofitting’, i.e. an economic approach to increase the lifespan of an existing structure by modifying it rather than redeveloping.
As for the eight GPRA (General Pool Residential Accommodation) colonies in East Kidwai Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Srinivaspuri, Mohammadpur and Thyagraj Nagar approved for redevelopment, vertical expansion was need of the hour, a senior NBCC official involved in the work at East Kidwai Nagar told ThePrint.
These colonies provide residential accommodation to central government employees.
“In due course of time, in different ministries, the number of employees rose and so did demand for housing. Earlier on one land parcel, there would be one ground floor and one or two floors above, now 2,444 houses have grown to about 4,608 in number. Anyway, the houses are 50-60 years old and their maintenance is becoming very difficult,” said the NBCC official.
He explained that the vertical development facilitated the growth of green spaces from 13-14 percent to 47 percent in five years since it began in 2014 and how the vertical structures had the latest amenities like CCTV cameras, rainwater pits and a sewage treatment plant that put less load on municipal houses.
The model is also self-financing as 10 per cent of the area was given for commercial purposes or as company spaces for government offices and PSUs, the official added.
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Problems with redevelopment projects
According to Delhi-based urban planner Ayushi Agarwal, who has worked with the NITI Aayog, the redevelopment projects were pending for years. Work is being done to do away with outdated structures and now the requirements have changed and retrofitting is not enough, she said.
“Parliament was so small that it used to have a library outside. And these buildings are ‘public buildings’… The convention centre at Pragati Maidan is going to not just be utilised for G20 but tons of exhibitions happen for the public every year,” Ayushi said.
Eminent architect, urban planner and conservationist A.G. Krishna Menon refused to comment on the subject as he was too involved in it and felt he would not be able to do justice to it in a few sentences.
His earlier writings, however, show that he has fought long and hard against the Central Vista redevelopment project for ”violating the protocols of best practices for any interventions in the heritage area” as the same area was labelled and sent as a nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage City list.
Other concerns surrounding the Central Vista project involved hasty implementation that didn’t even stop during the pandemic and plans to give the project through financial bidding that will eliminate professional talent as they will be unable to afford the excessive Earnest Money Deposit required from bid applicants.
A similar thought was expressed by Ravindran who felt that people behind these construction processes should have been chosen through design competitions, or at least the professional community of architects and urban experts should have been consulted, whose bypassing led to poor design and planning.
Commenting on the high-rise development of GPRA colonies, he said: “Requirement for high density doesn’t mean the length of a building should go higher. High-rise, high-density projects only profit the developers as more construction happens on a small parcel of land. A preferred solution of accommodating more people should be low-rise high-density housing.”
This above-recommended model of social housing has not really been experimented with in India, but is considered as a great way to have owners/tenants feel less isolated and closer to the streets.
Such projects will be especially true for former slum residents who are used to living in more community spaces and earn their livelihood through those streets, but are allotted high-rises in redeveloped slum colonies like in Delhi’s Kalkaji under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Why is this redevelopment happening now?
According to A.K. Jain, former commissioner (planning) of the Delhi Development Authority, the provisions for ‘redevelopment’ was also part of the DDA’s 2021 Master Plan as it was found that 70-80 percent of structures in Delhi were made up of dilapidated, unplanned and non-engineered buildings.
Therefore, he said, the redevelopment strategy was composite and not just confined to residential as it involved the redevelopment of commercial spaces, major markets, industrial clusters and low-density group housing societies.
Over the years, more population requires more area and new facilities and delays in the redevelopment were mostly because of land ownership issues. For instance, there were times when the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) did not work in tandem with the DDA for schemes meant for government areas, he explained.
“Railways didn’t allow any encroachment on its land and made DDA and MCD stay out of it. There were a lot of court orders and a lot of fighting in courts. It seems these fights have naturally resolved over time, as stakeholders realised that there was no other option but to optimise the existing infrastructure and available resources,” Jain added.
In the recent years, some architects believe, redevelopment is easy because approvals were quick and other processes were happening timely not just because of G20 but also because the capital was growing as well as a desire to put India on a global stage through its makeover.
“After PM Modi started traveling across the world – China, the US – a lot of ideas about urban design were exchanged. A realisation had come about how behind we were in terms of development and how much we needed to do to catch up” said Arcop’s Mujib.
This was echoed in the words of Vivek Saxena, executive director, Rail Land Development Authority, who feels that though the idea of redeveloping New Delhi railway station was conceptualised first in 2002, it was only now that it had reached a stage where the plan had gone for bidding.
It was possible because all departments that earlier clashed a lot, were now working in synchronicity and it was also getting easier to clear the scheme and permission to take it forward, he said.
The railway station was in need of redevelopment as the building had undergone about 12 to 13 retrofit but not in a comprehensively planned way. It needed to be rebuilt with modern amenities to cater to 4 lakh passengers that arrive daily there.
The New Delhi railway station redevelopment project, along with the AIIMS redevelopment project, is still in the pipeline. The project also aims to redevelop the surrounding roads to decongest the area as it receives a large number of cars on its route and is surrounded by Connaught Place.
Saxena said that the project was India’s first to be devised on the basis of transit-oriented development (TOD) as it was connected to metro stations, bus stands and covered the road that went straight to the airport. Thus, there were plans to develop commercial and even residential areas (for railway staff) around it as a part of the TOD project, he added.
Difference in projects of Centre, Delhi govt
The Delhi government, too, has carried out redevelopment projects in the city. While phase 1 of Chandni Chowk is already over, there are further plans to replicate its success in the five markets of Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Kirti Nagar and Khari Baoli.
While Dilli Haat is also set for a revamp, there is more focus currently on the beautification and redevelopment of roads to make it more ‘pedestrian-friendly.’
Urban experts point out that the major difference between the projects of central and Delhi governments is that while the former is construction heavy, the latter is about improving existing amenities through the upgradation of parks and markets, is more landscape/facility oriented and directly benefits the public.
“After Covid, there is a more focus on recreation spaces, public health and quality of life with people thinking about what kind of environment they want to live in. This is happening globally where there is a focus on more walkable cities and needs for public sit-outs and green spaces,” said urban planner Ayushi.
According to her, with the use of the internet and closer connectivity to the globalised world, the “European ideas” were penetrating India which focused on pedestrians, restricted vehicles and, in turn, pollution and traffic, provided designated spaces for vendors and increased footfall and business.
These urban design concepts are increasingly becoming part of the Smart City projects and have been adopted in bigger projects like at the New Delhi station where the entrance road will be ‘pedestrian friendly’ or the Common Central Secretariat which will promote walkability by not allowing vehicles in the campus.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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