When Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta as municipal commissioner nearly five years ago decided to embark on a project to design bicycle tracks for the city,he had his task cut out: finding an engineer willing to take up the project. Recounting his experiences of sensitising people about non-motorised vehicles and pedestrians while planning infrastructure projects,Mehta said: To get people interested in the idea,I was willing to send them on trainings and foreign trips,but no one was willing to do it. Eventually,I had one engineer who came up and agreed to design bicycle tracks and be a part of the designing cell,but the project is yet to take off. Over five years down the line,he is battling it out for another project creating bicycle tracks along the citys historical nullahs. It took a long while to convince and get the Public Works Department to start working on it. It is still to take off, he said. Speaking at a panel discussion on Will Delhi become walkable organised as part of the first Habitat Summit at the India Habitat Centre (IHC),Mehta said to make Delhi walkable,sensitivity and thought must be a part of the job description for planners in the government. Besides,no government can work in isolation, he said. It has to work with what people want,so there is a need to have public debates to ensure that the government plans according to their needs. The lack of discussion on infrastructure and peoples needs is one of the reasons why Delhi is still not as walkable as New York or London,and closer home,Mumbai. It is a city that walks anyway. People walk to bus stops,markets and schools every day,so we need walking facilities, he said. Batting for creating walking spaces in the city,Phillipe Rode,Executive director of the Department of Urban Age at the London School of Economics and Political Science,said it is part of the democratic imperative to have pedestrian walkways and cycle tracks. It is bizarre to see that the car space occupied in Delhi is about 160 sq m per person,while we believe 90 per cent of the city walks or travels on public transport, he said,mentioning the backlash that the Bus Rapid Transit corridor has faced in the last one year. Commenting on the citys commuting habits,British journalist Sam Miller,whose book Adventures in a Megacity is based on his experiences while walking through the city,said the thing that Delhi needs to watch out for in 2010 is not the Commonwealth Games. It is the Delhi Metro coming into South Delhi. The BRT has managed to survive the backlash,but it would be nice to see how the Metro,which the city is so proud of,fares in South Delhi. I know people residing in South Delhi who have never taken a bus in their lives,walking and travelling by public transport is often considered to be meant for the poor, Miller said. The Metro may alter that mindset and initiate a connection between people living in the same neighbourhood and pave the way for better planning and acceptability for walking. For those who wish long for walks within the city,Miller offers a tip: Places like Asiad,Panchsheel and Shahpur Jat are lovely. These paths are discovered and paved by servants,workers and essentially those who do not drive. Walk on.
