The other day, I spent over one and a half hours in pouring rain, going from Nehru Place to Okhla. To say that the traffic was moving at snail’s pace would do grave injustice to the slow mollusk — for we weren’t moving at all. Looking at the stationary cars atop the Nehru Place flyover, it struck me that our new flyovers have quite failed to streamline traffic. The road I was on was so waterlogged that getting off my car and legging it would have been folly. No wonder then, that I was so ripe for Manit Rastogi’s ideas later that week, about improving the state of the crowded and unplanned city of Delhi.
“The challenge,” said this young architect, “is to switch from vehicle-oriented development (or building more roads and flyovers, consequently getting more cars on the road) to transit-oriented development — which provides more public transport options to citizens.” 1,100 cars are being added to Delhi’s roads daily, and Rastogi believes that they’re partly because of a lack of other options. “Did you know, there’s been a 60 per cent reduction in bicycle usage over the last twenty years in Delhi! Where is the space to ride a bike anymore?” said he. The metro is coming up across the city, but Rastogi is livid at the fact that town planners have ignored the issue of last-mile connectivity. “So how do you reach home from the metro station? If you get into yet another petrol-guzzling vehicle, doesn’t that take away the whole point of it all?” said he.
The solution lies, says he, not in building more roads, but in creating more cycling and pedestrian paths for citizens. And the space for these cycling paths, Rastogi advocates, lies hidden under our very noses: “Delhi’s drains are a 350-km-long network that span across the city and empty into the Yamuna. Cities across the world have been successful in cleaning up their drains and putting them to good use. Its time we did the same with ours!” He made me visualise lush green paths for cyclists and walkers, connecting diverse areas in the city. Maybe, said he, for longer distances, there could by mini battery-powered vehicles running as well…
Rastogi’s firm Morphogenesis, along with several partners, has studied cities as diverse as Valencia (Spain) and Seoul (South Korea) that have converted their stinking drains into vibrant and useful public spaces. “These case studies demonstrate that using the right reeds and aquatic plants, regular de-silting and manual cleaning can help maintain drains quite effectively. And sewage, instead of being treated in the mega sewage treatment plants (if it flows unrestricted to them) — can be much more efficiently treated at source, in micro sewage treatment plants,” said he. Cleaner nullahs would mean a cleaner Yamuna, something that the hugely expensive clean up plan hasn’t been able to achieve yet. This would also result in ground water recharging, a crying need of the city.
The hitches? The multiplicity of agencies that have to issue permits for such a huge exercise, and the funds required (total costs are estimated between Rs 6,000-7,000 crore). But predictably, Rastogi has a plan — “we’ll break up the nullahs into manageable segments to reduce costs and the number of permits required, and connect them later.” Right now, he’s concentrating on advocacy and building public opinion. “In Seoul, after the drains were cleaned and landscaped, temperatures dropped by two degrees. And traffic reduced, even though a six-kilometer elevated road was removed in the process!” said he. Given Delhi’s civic amenities are at rock bottom, Rastogi’s plan couldn’t be more timely. Let’s hope it doesn’t run aground with red tape now.
