Its author is senior advocate Rakesh Khanna, one of the nine Court Commissioners working with the monitoring committee set up by the Delhi High Court. It was first submitted to the monitoring committee, comprising retired IPS officers B L Vohra and R S Gupta besides a CBI official R K Mishra.

Khanna’s report, which has since been also submitted to the Supreme Court monitoring committee, offers a sweeping range of solutions: from identifying available space across the city to freeing up space trapped in bus-depots, next to railway lines and even open drains. It also offers a detailed time-bound plan for matching the available space with the affected traders. The main recommendations of the Khanna report:

• Authorities should consider large chunks of land lying unutilised in the heart of the city. For instance, 51 acres of CPWD land at Anand Parbat, near Liberty cinema hall in Karol Bagh. And 97 bighas in village Shadara Khurd, a large portion of DDA land towards the north-eastern side of Defence Colony abutting the railway line between Nizamuddin and Jangpura flyover.

• At the core of the report is a proposal to effectively use 22 District Centres which were proposed to be developed in the city by 2001. Of them, 10 are at various stages of development while the others are yet to take off. Acknowledging that the DDA has its task cut out, Khanna’s report says that plots are available in almost all these centres for development of commercial sites, including shops.

• For example, space is available in the already existing District Centres at Nehru Place, Shivaji Place, Jhandewalan, Saket and Wazirpur.

• Even one plot earmarked for a cultural centre at Bhikaji Cama Place may be utilized.

• Enough land is also available in District Centres at Jehangirpuri, Khyber Pass, Dilshad Garden, Mayur Vihar, Rohini, Dwarka, Mangolpuri (Mangalam Place), Eastern Yamuna Canal, Shahdara and Auchandi Road.

• Similar is the case with Community Centres, Local Shopping Centres (LSCs) and Convenience Shopping Centres (CSC), envisaged under the MPD-2001.

• Unutilised commercial sites for Community Centres are also available in each zone of the city.

• Such sites include: Nehru Place I and II, Jasola, Saket, Vasant Kunj Shopping Mall, Gitanjali, Badarpur, Dakshinpuri, East of Kailash, Kalkaji, Okhla Industrial Area Phase I and III, Pushp Vihar, Safdarjung Enclave (opposite Kamal cinema hall), Sheikh Sarai, Vasant Kunj Sectors B and C, Lado Sarai, Mathura Road (opposite Apollo hospital), Vasant Enclave, Pitampura (in several blocks), Shalimar Bagh, Rohini in various sectors, GT Karnal Road, Mukherjee Nagar, Hari Nagar, Retail Business Centre Nangloi, Subhash Nagar, Vikaspuri, Rajouri Garden, Tilak Nagar, Madipur, Basai Darapur, Mansarovar Garden, Lakkar Mandi, Naraina Industrial Area, Karampura etc.

• Various bus depots can be converted to small Local Shopping Centres, where the ground floor could be used as the bus shelter and depot while upper floors could be used for shopping areas/complexes. Construction of multi-level parking will address the growing parking needs.

• Surplus land can be made available by covering large drains running in various zones of city, like the Najafgarh drain which passes through Punjabi Bagh, Mukherjee Nagar etc in north-west Delhi.

• The other drains which could be explored to yield prime land: the drain from Anand Vihar to Vasundhra-East End Apartments in trans-Yamuna. And in the south district, the drain passing from INA through CGO Complex towards Jangpura and Nizamuddin and the one between Kidwai Nagar Extension and AIIMS and South Extension II on the other.

(Tomorrow: How to work out the rehab plan, according to Khanna)