Bottom-up planning to save Mughal capital

NEW DELHI: Designated as a ‘special area’ in successive master plans, Shahjahanabad or the Walled City has been in a state of neglect for long. Without special development control norms mandated by Master Plan of Delhi-2021 and enough space, the existing social infrastructure has been pressured to the point of breaking.
To resolve this, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) carried out a study for five years.Abandoning conventional planning methods, SPA’s urban design department engaged with the locals to identify the problems and seek solutions.
Arunava Dasgupta, SPA’s urban design head, said, “We are looking at a different but complementary approach to conventional planning to address the concerns of the area. This alternative approach is bottom-up, locally oriented and community driven, and uses urban design and conservation principles. Here, we are asking the community to identify and discuss the shortfalls and we are creating design and local planning solutions with their help.”
The study was recently presented before PWD minister Satyendar Jain and Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation (SRDC). “We had a very positive meeting with SPA experts. We liked their ideas. Though a final decision is yet to be taken, we are going to explore how we can use their inputs in our project to revitalise Shahjahanabad area,” said Faizi O Hashmi, managing director, SRDC.
SPA extensively mapped the existing social infrastructure, communities, trades, lanes, evacuee properties (under government’s possession) etc. Since this was a heavily built-up area, planning had to be from the perspective of the overall built environment and not just in terms of land-use, density, transportation and infrastructure.
“The state of physical and social infrastructure available for a community determines the degree of liveability in the city. With little space available to create new facilities, it is important to identify existing havelis as evacuee properties or otherwise, which can be used for retrofitting social infrastructure like health centres, primary schools, socio-cultural amenities, etc,” said Dasgupta.
The Walled City area was divided into nine sections based on municipal boundaries and each ward was studied in detail. “Wards are the lowest level in a democratic set-up. We spoke to the people in each ward, then prepared a list of their key concerns and held a public meeting to discuss them,” said Manu Mahajan, assistant professor of urban design at SPA.
For instance, Sitaram Bazaar ward lacks open spaces. Experts suggested redoing the metro entry/exit at Hauz Qazi chowk as a solution. “By demarcating space for cycle-rickshaws, redesigning the metro station, constructing stepped plaza etc, we can completely change the space and make it more people-friendly,” said Mahajan.
Similarly, Trikona Park near Kashmere Gate could be revived by applying simple principles of urban design.
SPA found several evacuee properties (also called enemy properties) in the area. “These properties could be used to plug the infrastructure gap like schools, dispensaries, community spaces etc,” said Dasgupta.
Experts said it was important to adopt a community-based approach to preserve the basic character of the Walled City. “The haveli is the unit of building type, which when repeated and organised as a mohalla, katra or gali, creates the morphology of Shahjahanabad, very much like bungalows do for Lutyens’ Delhi. The haveli has a certain way in which it relates to the Walled City or the immediate locality,” said Dasgupta.
Experts also warned that if nothing was done, Shahjahanabad would succumb to urbanisation. “Havelis are being broken down to construct apartments. If this continues, the city of havelis would become a city of apartments,” Dasgupta said.