Makeover blueprint ready for Walled City, Karol Bagh

The North Municipal Corporation has finalised the draft redevelopment plan for special areas such as the densely populated Walled City and Karol Bagh.

The areas include mixed residential and commercial places in Shahjahanabad, Walled City extension Sadar Bazar and Paharganj, Old Subzi Mandi and Roshanara Road.

The draft plan that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) outsourced — before its trifurcation in April this year — to a private party, has been submitted to the technical committee comprising the city government, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Chief Fire Officer, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC).

The plan proposes widening of roads, pooling of properties, developing parking lots and redeveloping unauthorised land earmarked as residential redevelopment areas.

The draft stresses the need to redevelop katras (colonies) in the crowded and chaotic hub of old Delhi without changing its basic character. This means, height of buildings around Jama Masjid should be restricted so that they don't dwarf the grand mosque.

It has been noticed that special areas have 16.55 per cent commercial land, while another 11.65 per cent falls in the mixed land use category. But most of the commercial space is unauthorised.

The designated commercial spaces are on the strip between Chandni Chowk and Fatehpuri Masjid, Lajpat Rai Market, Sadar Bazar, Asaf Ali Road, Jhandewalan, Gaffar Market and markets developed by the DDA.

The Master Plan Delhi 2021 states that some of the unauthorised commercial spaces could be legalised as shopping streets depending on the scale of commercialisation over the years. The zonal development plan prepared by the DDA shows these areas as residential redevelopment areas.

The proposed development control regulations states that "confirming" industrial areas could be retained. Unplanned industrial areas shall be considered for redevelopment.

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