75 hotels to make city more tourist friendly

RESHAPING DELHI PART II

A host of new buildings are set to change the Capital's landscape by 2010, including what will be Delhi's tallest building with 28 floors "" an international convention centre near Minto Road.

Nearly 75 hotels will be constructed in the city, which faces an acute shortage of hotel rooms, estimated at around 10,000 rooms daily in the peak season. More water bodies, drain beautification and slum rehabilitation will be other features that are part of the city's makeover.

At present, Delhi's hotels have only 9,841 rooms for tourists, which are inadequate, considering that arrivals are growing at 25 per cent per annum.

The Union ministry of tourism has identified 75 sites for hotels, to be constructed by the Delhi Development Authority, the Central Public Works Department, the Airports Authority of India, the railways and the New Delhi Municipal Council. The government will also construct service apartments in the Commonwealth Games village.

A 50-bed hospital will also come up at the Games village. New health centres to augment services will be set up, while existing government hospitals will be upgraded. The Delhi Development Authority will also construct a signature building at Pragati Maidan.

Following the examples of London and Shanghai, the government will undertake a Yamuna river front project in three phases along a 22 km stretch of the river.

The Central Public Works Department will develop the central vista from President House to National Stadium. It will also beautify the landscape, replace old fountains with new ones and restore the heritage structures along the route.

Street parking will be replaced by "sunken" parking at Rajpath. The nine museums located along Rajpath will be spruced up, including the National Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

The heart of Delhi, Connaught Place (Rajiv Chowk) will have better geometric roads, pedestrian plazas and landscaping. Its five subways will be given a face lift and nine more will be constructed by 2010.

Heritage structures, including Jama Masjid, Humayun's Tomb, Nizamuddin, Qutub Complex at Mehrauli, Siri Fort Wall, Hauz Khas complex, Jantar Mantar and Lal Gumbad will be repaired through chemical treatment. The Archaeological Survey of India will improve the surrounding areas and illuminate them with flood lights.

The old markets at Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and Chowri Bazaar will have pedestrian paths, adequate parking, night bazaars and hygienic eating joints. No rickshaws would be allowed in the area.

The Jama Masjid area would also have better corridors devoid of hoardings, utility structures like transformers and poles and police posts, which will be relocated.

Given that the city faces acute water shortages (up to 132 million gallons per day by 2010), the Delhi Jal Board will bring water from reservoirs in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal and Haryana's Badhkal, Damdama and Sohna lakes.

The Delhi government will also develop an aquifer along the upper Ganga canal in Meerut to get nearly 100 million gallons of water per day.

To meet the shortfall in power supply, the government has signed agreements with Mejia, Koderma and Bokaro plants to get 2,500 Mw of power. A coal-based power plant will come up at Badarpur with a capacity of 980 Mw while the current Indraprastha thermal plant will be dismantled for a gas-based plant of 700 Mw.

A sewage treatment plant costing Rs 2,893 crore will be set up at the mouth of drains to treat 507 million gallons per day. The government has also proposed to form interceptor sewers along Najafgarh, Shahdara and supplementary drains, which can carry nearly 75 per cent of the city's sewage.

The treated effluents will be released into the Yamuna. The old drainage systems at Mori Gate, Tonga Stand Drain and Barapullah will be beautified with a green corridor beside them acting as a "nature trail". Water will be cleaned through a natural process and wetlands will be created while solid waste dumping will be restricted.