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Delhi’s Special Area needs urban design solutions, not politics | Opinion
The massive fire at north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi (located in the Special Area) has led to political bickering over the Special Area redevelopment plan, which was proposed 12 years back in the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.
The master plan designated Special Area comprising the Walled City, Sadar Paharganj and Karol Bagh is back in news. Like always, for the wrong reasons.
The massive fire at north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi (located in the Special Area) has led to political bickering over the Special Area redevelopment plan, which was proposed 12 years back in the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government are busy in a blame game, especially now as it is an election year, over the delay in the implementation of the redevelopment plan. But both political parties have not suggested any immediate measure they plan to take to address the problem.
The plan is discussed every time there is a fire or a building collapse in the Special Area, but is forgotten quickly. The MPD-2021 mandates that the civic agency, in this case the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, prepares the redevelopment plan and also notify the Special Area building regulations.
While the building regulations were notified in 2011, the redevelopment plan is yet to see the light of the day.
The redevelopment plan prepared by the North Corporation proposes to develop three business districts, on the lines of Connaught Place, in Karol Bagh, Sadar Bazaar and Chandni Chowk. Land use in these areas will be commercial and no new residential building will be allowed. It proposes redeveloped of existing structures by amalgamation of plots, redevelopment of Shahjahanbad area, improvement of vista between Red Fort and Fatehpuri Mosque (the work is already going on), identifying green spaces, addressing parking and transport issues among others.
In the absence of the plan, there has been rampant commercialisation. A majority of residential buildings located in narrow lanes and bylanes in these areas today house small scale industries, some illegally operating like the one in Anaj Mandi where the fire took place, warehouses, shops etc, making the area disaster-prone. Rampant commercialisation has also led to traffic and congestion problem.
According to North corporation officials, there are close to 1,000 illegal industrial units making shoe soles, bags, glass, steel and plastic objections etc operating in old Delhi. The Delhi Fire Services officials say that the Special Area is a tinderbox, there have been 125 fire incidents reported in this area last year alone.
The Special Area now needs a local area specific planning, as challenges in each locality are different. Urban designer AGK Menon, who has prepared the Local Area Plan (LAP) for the Walled City, says that same set of byelaws can’t be applicable to Shahjahanbad, which is a historical area, and Karol Bagh. “The ground situation in all the areas within Special Area are very different. There is a need to provide area specific solutions,” says Menon while stressing on the need for Local Area Plans.
