Can I walk in Delhi?

In this capital of contrasts, just walking through the memories of this historic city is reduced to a gamble with life. In the rush to become a global metropolis, Delhi has left its walkers behind

- Snehil Sinha and Aaditya Khatwani

Delhi is a city written in footsteps—of emperors and exiles, revolutionaries and refugees. Every bylane is a verse from a forgotten poem, and every intersection, a story to explore.

And once, it welcomed you to walk.

Avdesh Kumar, now joint proctor at Delhi University, remembers the magic of those walks in the 1990s. Every evening, he and a friend would stroll back from college, watching the sun cast golden hues over the streets before slipping into dusk. “If a bus didn't come, we'd just walk one or two kilometres to the next stop. It felt effortless and gave us time to laugh, talk, and feel the city,” he said.

Rakshanda Jalil recalls cycling to school through the hush of the morning, with trees forming green canopies and monkeys darting out from the Ridge. “There was greenery on all sides. It was a comfortable walk,” she said.

Through the 1950s to the 1990s, walking wasn't just a means of travel in Delhi—it was a way of life. Neighbourhoods like Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, and Kamla Nagar were built with mixed land use in mind—homes nestled next to markets, parks within walking distance, and DTC bus stops around the corner. Government colonies such as RK Puram and Defence Colony had tree-lined paths, pedestrian underpasses, and green buffers that separated footpaths from fast-moving roads.

But starting in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the car population exploded. Flyovers, expressways, and ring roads replaced shaded boulevards. And slowly, the city stopped making room for the walker.

Now, in this Capital of contrasts, just walking is a gamble with life.

The grandeur of Mughal boulevards and the colonial order of Lutyens design now stand in sharp contrast to broken pavements, encroached sidewalks, and high-speed urban chaos. In the rush to become a global metropolis, Delhi has left its walkers behind.