New Delhi: Lieutenant governor TS Sandhu has outlined a four-pillar vision — environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic and cultural vibrancy, and inclusive urban growth — for building a Viksit Dilli.A meeting of Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) advisory council, chaired by LG Friday, reviewed the city’s long-term urban development strategy. It discussed major challenges confronting Delhi’s urban landscape, including the shortage of affordable housing, proliferation of slums and unauthorised colonies, traffic congestion, pollution, water security, urban flooding, redevelopment of existing areas and conservation of heritage structures.It also took into account planned development across more than 1,400sq km under various planning zones, including transit-oriented development (TOD), land pooling areas, developed residential areas and the Yamuna riverfront.“Under the environmental sustainability pillar, the focus will be on increasing per-capita green cover, developing a vibrant riverfront and creating an interconnected green-and-blue infrastructure network,” LG said. To improve quality of life, he added, priority will be given to disaster resilience, water security and safer roads.The roadmap also proposes strengthening the city’s economic and cultural identity by redeveloping commercial markets and business centres, creating logistics hubs and leveraging heritage as an economic asset. For inclusive growth, the emphasis will be on creating a congestion-free city through comprehensive mobility, multimodal integration and improved last-mile connectivity from metro stations.The members of the council, including MPs Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Sudhanshu Trivedi, as well as senior officials of DDA, DMRC, NCRTC, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi govt and other agencies, identified several priority areas requiring intervention. They include bridging the gap in affordable housing, rehabilitation of slum clusters, regularisation and redevelopment of unauthorised colonies, regulation and development of O zone along the Yamuna, redevelopment of existing neighbourhoods, planned development in land pooling and low-density areas, addressing urban heat islands and flooding, preserving heritage structures, and ensuring long-term water security.Bidhuri said he raised the demand to remove 12 ancient villages and 92 unauthorised colonies from O zone. “The people in these areas have long faced restrictions on development because of their inclusion in the river floodplain area,” he pointed out. The MP also requested to notify Master Plan 2041 soon for the planned development of Delhi.Concluding the meeting, LG said the identified planning interventions would serve as the roadmap for translating the vision of an inclusive, sustainable and future-ready Delhi into reality.
