Posts Tagged ‘infrastructure’

Fireworks? Nah, an overloaded electric pole could hold it no more, in North Delhi's Vijay Nagar colony. World class city (if there's such a thing) will take more than a CWG in its making! Earlier this year during the month of March, I met with the wife of a foreign ... Full story

Well, that’s what many people seem to be reciting during this year’s monsoon. The reason for such a wish being the menace caused by rainfall that leads to traffic havoc and raises people's irritation level even as it brings down the city’s mercury level. Since the ... Full story

Delhi rendezvous with Monsoon 2010 finally took place in the week starting July 5th and the city has since then given a mixed response to the rains. The Monsoon itself is such that the city is experiencing only intermittent rains with the sun not refusing to give in. It came as a ... Full story

Your feedback and suggestions for the Blog are very valuable to me and I appreciate the time and efforts you put in providing them. I am hugely benefited by the feed back not only because it makes me feel good, but also because it gives me clues to the ... Full story

An earlier blog post dealt with the concept of garbage. The term is a function and reality of man-made systems. The word has existed since the very beginning and is also part of cultural history. The post referred to the term garbage as waste generated from the use ... Full story

The city of Delhi has grown in two ways. The planned part of the city has grown with the help of the DDA. It has supported the city by planning the physical infrastructure first and then the housing residential areas overlaid on it. That means the roads the sewage the electricity and the water supply pipelines were laid out first. The planning also included open spaces like parks and playgrounds. In addition there were plots of land earmarked for institutional areas such as hospitals and schools and colleges etc. Then plots of lands were allocated for housing to be constructed as either independent houses or flats in multi-storied buildings. This is the standard way in which most cities in independent India have grown. This ensures there is someone, residents living in these colonies and co-operative societies, paying for the services for the infrastructure that is in place. This is an important part of operation and maintenance costs that are needed to keep the infrastructure functional. Interspersed between this planned developments are villages that existed before the lands were taken over by the authorities. These have the modern infrastructure amenities superimposed on the settlement after the city has grown around it. These villages and their open and occupied lands do not come under the DDA. Like any settlement which needs open spaces for its settlers these villages also have open grounds, cremation spaces, village forest lands, grazing lands etc. These are also called the Lal Dora lands. But when the modern city grew around these settlements the price of these lands became very high to keep them vacant. Hence these were built up and rented out as commercial property. Full story