Andha Raja, Chaupat Nagri

To understand how New Delhi has been destroyed by our stupid authorities designing its roads in a stupid way, it is useful to contrast Chandni Chowk, the market the Mughals built opposite the Red Fort, Connaught Place, the market the Brits built in the new town, and Nehru Place, the market these duds built quite near my house.

The difference between these markets lies in the layout of roads.

The word “chowk” refers to a 4-point crossing. The word has its root in “chaar,” which means “four.” Four roads meet at Chandni Chowk. In the old days, these roads led to city gates – Lahori Gate was the road to Lahore, Ajmeri Gate was the road to Ajmer, Kashmiri Gate was the road to Kashmir. From all these routes, buyers, seller and goods reached Chandni Chowk. This was therefore a successful market.

Connaught Place was even better. Here, the central marketplace is connected by innumerable “radial roads”: Parliament Street, Janpath, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Minto Road, Panchkuian Road, Irwin Road and so on. That is, more than half-a-dozen broad streets lead to this market. This market too was a success. The duds have renamed Connaught Place as Rajiv Chowk – but it is not a chowk at all. It is a “hub-and-spoke” system, far more advanced than the chowk.

The peculiar feature of Nehru Place is that NO ROADS lead to this market. You can enter Nehru Place through a T-junction on the Kalkaji Road, or another T-junction on the Outer Ring Road. And if you enter, it is difficult to get out. This market is therefore a failure. I noticed the other day that the Delhi Metro is connecting to Nehru Place. This would be a malinvestment. In my view, Nehru Place should be demolished.

Let us now drive from Nehru Place along the Outer Ring Road towards the airport. There are T-junctions every 200 yards. Savitri is a T-junction, there is another at Panchsheel, there were two more connecting to Malviya Nagar and Khel Gaon Marg (where there is a flyover today), IIT has 2 T-junctions, Munirka has some more, and so the story goes.

If you turn left at the IIT flyover and head towards Mehrauli, there is a T-junction at Adhchini, another connecting to Saket, another at Mehrauli itself, and if you drive on towards Gurgaon you find a T-junction where the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road meets the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. As you drive further, Andheria More is a T-junction. Turn right and drive towards the airport past all the DDA flats in Vasant Kunj and there are more than a dozen T-junctions. Of course, there is a flyover too.

Note that the duds live in Lutyens’ Delhi – all laid out in a “hub-and-spoke” design.

But they see it not. They are blind.

A Hindustani proverb says “Andher Nagri, Choupat Raja”.

In this case, I would say “Andha Raja, Choupat Nagri.”