Some day, in the not-so-distant future, the master plan will supposedly redress the imbalance. But will it? Master plans are well-meaning documents. Planners work out respectable scenarios; but they are often blissfully unaware that Indian demographic considerations can make the most assiduous of planning ideals go haywire.

That rules are meant to be broken and master plans changed, is but expected in a city whose demographic character is itself under siege. The Delhi Master Plan, however, has so far produced little to justify its existence. Its larger pretence at controlling civic values in a changing city are being constantly exposed. Moreover its stated willingness to change with trends defeats its very purpose — that of promoting a particular lifestyle for all the city’s residents. Certainly accommodation of new amenities, people and civic infrastructure is a crucial consideration in a growing metropolis, but then so is their restriction — restriction on the number of cars entering town, curbs on their movement, controls over new construction, building densities, and so on. In cities around the world, the growth of inner commercial cores has led administrations to impose stringent controls. In Singapore, car access into the centre of town comes at a price few can afford; likewise, London charges an exorbitant decongestion tax. New York’s parking fees are so prohibitive, few drive into Manhattan.

In India, the reverse happens. In the absence of civic regulations, the only way to survive is to impose your will on the city. Wherever you are, burgeoning metro or industrial township, the city environment is in perpetual flux. A house is being demolished, another is rising, a third is acquiring a barsati floor, telephone lines are being dug, concrete sewers lying on a pile of earth. In every public act is an acceptance of growing numbers: the sidewalk is accepted as a bedroom for the poor, the railway line, a bathroom. Bungalows are broken to make flats, the servant quarter is rented to a college student, the garage to a doctor; apartments enclose their verandahs, rooms extend out, illegally projecting into unclaimed air space — the urban Indian will grab all there is to possess, altering his environment in a steady reclamation.

... contd.