Need to reimagine Chandni Chowk redevelopment plan

WE CAN LEARN FROM THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CENTRES AND CITIES, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA, EVEN AS WE EVOLVE OUR OWN PARAMETERS

- Sohail Hashmi

The changes proposed by the Delhi government to the Chandni Chowk Redevelopment Project will result in recasting the earlier Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Project.

The proposals include raising the height of structures in Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli, Naya Bazar, Jama Masjid, Kashmiri Gate, Sadar Bazar, Daryaganj, and Chawri Bazar up to four floors from the current two floors and renaming Shahjahanabad as Indraprastha.

The new proposals amount to jettisoning the idea of restoring the facades of the structures, a key element of the original proposal, and erasing the very heritage of Chandni Chowk and seven other markets.

The suggestions are touted as Phase II of the redevelopment project; the pedestrianisation of Chandni Chowk, completed in 2021, was the first phase.

The new proposal seeks to convert "existing wholesale markets into four-storey commercial buildings to ease congestion and optimise space usage".

Shahjahanabad was once among the greatest cities in the world and a centre of the anti-colonial struggle.

Its preservation has to be at the heart of any scheme of redevelopment.

Retrieval of that heritage, increasingly buried under sheets of glass and metal frames, is needed.

It has been said that Chandni Chowk served as a model for Louis XIV when he laid out the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The new proposal threatens to erase this heritage.

Travellers visit Chandni Chowk and the narrow streets of Shahjahanabad to experience the charm of the old world, walk in the narrow streets and see old havelis, taste savouries from small street-food stalls, breathe in the fragrances of perfumes, and smell the spices.

They do not come to Shahjahanabad and Chandni Chowk to shop at glitzy malls.