OUR DEPLORABLE CITY ROADS

Delhi Road near Moolchand Metro Station

The other day, one newspaper reported that 'Connaught Place became the 6th most expensive prime office market in the world.  

According to semi-annual survey conducted by CBRE Group Inc, an American commercial real estate company,  the cost of one square foot of prime office space  at Connaught Place  is $ 160.  Click to read.  No doubt it is a proud moment for a capital city of   India. 

But all this matters little for ordinary city dwellers like me.  People like me only want three things :

-  Better sewage system

-  Better drinking water

-  better air to breathe

On these three counts, it seems that Delhi lags behind.  Sewage system is terribly in shambles.  There is a great shortage of drinking water and water tables are fast drying up around Delhi.  When it comes to fresh breathable air, on that aspect also, a lot is to be desired.   The recent US Embassy's warning for uncontrollable pollution levels in Delhi strengthens my point.  You could read that story from the Wall Street Journal's website. click to read.    

The image you are seeing above was taken from my mobile camera today morning (2.1.14) in front of Moolchand Metro Station in South Delhi.  The road is spread with a sheet of water due to continuous rain from the morning onwards.   The reason is that the roads are not enough gradient to send the floating  water into underground drainage system automatically.  The stagnated water forced me to walk 100 mtrs more to reach the metro station.

It is simply not the case with Delhi.  Even Mumbai floods terribly during torrential rains. There must be a mechanism by which the rain water goes fast to the nearby drainage pipe.  We can have small mesh plates on the roads, especially in all low-lying areas  where the water stagnates  during rains. This is a layman's advice from my side.    Some engineering minds must think on it and we are badly in need of water-free roads so that vehicular traffic is not affected nor it creates any mess to the walkers.

The present government under our able Prime Minister Sh. Modi is doing a lot in the name of Swachch Bharat. A dream project  to make 100 smart cities is also on pipeline.   But Delhi badly needs a big facelift in terms of citizen amenities and hope somebody in the corridors of power are listening to my words !