Friday, August 21, 2009

Delhi: A long way to go.


It’s really difficult to understand the relevance of the claims made by Mr. Kalmadi and Ms. Sheila Dixit about ‘successfully’ holding the Commonwealth games in Delhi next year. We do not have the stadia ready to play, we do not have the audience to watch sports apart from Cricket, we do not have the roads to carry the tourists across the city and we do not have the buses to do so. In such a case, how do we make the claims to hold Commonwealth Games in India and are bold enough to bid for Olympics.
A short stint of 4.5 months in Dubai was enough to change my perception on India Shining. A GDP growth rate of 6% and the ability to fight the inflation did not have any impact on the actual condition of India. Through this post, I do not intend to criticize and re-criticize the government for its failure in bringing up the talent to the forefront, but I’ll pick up three most grieving problems faced by Delhi to attract foreign tourists and businesses. I end this blog with three recommendations for the government and the citizens to start the change process and give a speed to it.
The first and the foremost factor is the portrayal of the image of India. I landed at New Delhi IGI Airport and the first sight was old, stressed out baboos sitting at the immigration counter, handling the foreign tourists and creating the proverbial first impression on them. The moment I came out of the airport, the scene outside was even worse. There was a long queue at the pre-paid taxi counter that was shattered itself. After standing in queue for 15 minutes, I got the receipt for the taxi but no taxi number and nobody to tell me where to get the taxi from. As if that wasn’t enough, the taxi itself was in a broken condition with foam coming out of the seats, rear view mirror missing and seat belt just tied at one end. And if you get a chance to travel by train in the morning, you’ll see people doing their chores besides the railway tracks making India the butt of the joke.
The second serious problem faced by Delhi today is the road traffic control system. Delhi-NOIDA express way was created to showcase India’s prowess in the road transportation but despite the wide, high-speed roads, the toll-gate has done the damage by making the cars wait for long times. Though I am proud of the DMRC project in the city, but the traffic hassles that it has been creating for the last 6-7 years have been a major headache. The temporary roads that have been built as bypass to the metro-line have been built in a very bad condition as if the responsibility for travelling on temporary roads lies with the drivers and not with the authorities. At traffic lights, it becomes evident that there’s no lane system existing in Delhi, whatever are the claims of the Delhi traffic control authorities.
Third major problem faced by Delhi is the safety of its citizens, especially at night. Every other day, we read a couple of news of murder in some corner of Delhi or a rape in the other. Night life is pathetic, to say the least, in Delhi and the only reason is the security issue. People don’t feel safe to come out of their houses at night, even for a walk. And foreigners are the least protected of the entire lot because of their naiveté about India.
Given these basic problems, apart from the administrative, bureaucratic and sports issues, how does Delhi claim to be in control of the situation and sure enough to be able to hold the Commonwealth games in 2010?
Coming to the solution part, there are three basic things that Delhi needs to focus on, rather than beating around the bush with same old policies leading to absolutely nowhere.
The first thing that Delhi needs is the role clarity between the Center government’s responsibilities and the State government’s. Not long ago, the state and central governments were from different parties and one could see a constant blame game going on between the two for the responsibilities of the safety of citizens, public transportation, power supply, water supply and other basic infrastructural facilities. Even now, it’s not clear whether the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) needs to tighten the state government for certain facility requirements or the Center govt. Before we move on to ensure a Developed Delhi, we need to sit for a while and draw clear lines of responsibilities.
The second important step to be taken by the Indian government is to ensure a better road network and a planned expansion of the same. Just like the Andhra Pradesh government, Delhi govt needs to take some bold steps to expand the road network within the city at a much faster pace than it has been doing. Roads in Old Delhi need to be broadened and new roads to be added, even if it means purchasing the land from the residents of the area. The Delhi-Gurgaon flyover system was planned to take on the traffic for next 20 years, but it has already been clogged up with traffic jams and long queues. Proper traffic planning needs to be put into place before mindlessly creating new roads. The BRTS system has faced so much resistance from the local public because this system created another barrier in the already bad traffic condition of the capital. A centralized support system for the public transportation should be set in place to help the non-residents of Delhi. In the nutshell, the master plan for the city or Delhi Vision 2020 should be created for Delhi and every department should be aligned to work towards the same.
My last recommendation to the Delhi government will be to shift as fast as possible from the man-oriented governance system to e-governance. I really appreciate the Bhagidari initiative of Delhi govt. under the supervision of Ms. Sheila Dixit, but this initiative needs to be more inclusive in approach. E-governance should not only be focused at the citizens or residents of Delhi, but it should also be targeted at making the stay of the tourists as comfortable as possible. E-governance should help the citizens to fill in the bills online, file complaints against public offices, get to know the bus routes, know about the decisions of the government, know about the plans for Delhi’s development, rules and regulations prevalent in Delhi and other needed support for the residents of and visitors to Delhi.
I think these three solutions will form the base for the Delhi government to start its further development towards proving itself as the capital of the next super-power of the world. Once developed in Delhi, the same model can also be implemented in other cities in India that suffer the problems similar to New Delhi’s.
But before putting it all on the government, I must say that nothing can be fruitful if the citizens of the country will not support the system. Any initiative of the government needs an encouragement and acceptance in right spirit by the residents. Only then will we be able to create a Shining Delhi and Shining India.

15 comments:

  1. Very thought provoking blog. I totally agree the last line dat we citizens must support this change process as its only for our betterment.
    Among the suggestions, i differ a bit both in priority and area of concern. My suggestions are not based at Delhi but at national scale.
    The prime concern is of population. With its ever increasing rate, whichsoever govt. will come, they wont be able to meet the target. Even after 60 yrs of independence, we have population growth rate of 1.43 against 0.6 of China ( which is most populous).
    On the other hand the literacy rate of India is 66% against 91% of China. With 30 % uneducated population, we cant hope of reaching stars. The citizens to whom u ask to support the system, 34% of them dont even think that way.
    I am not denying the reasons cited by you. The population of Delhi is educated enough with literacy rate of 82% that they can help and stand alongwith govt. to make the city a better place.
    Roads are no doubt the veins of city but eually important is the traffic sense among its users. We daily read a news or two about the carnage of Blue line buses. Along with building roads, drivers should also be made aware of driving ettiquettes.
    And you very well said while mentioninig the ownership stand between State & Centre.
    All in all, the revolution has to be at much larger scale, then only India is gooing to make reputation at the international front.

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  3. Hi Himanshu, thanks a lot for such a well researched response. I couldn't agree more with your point of suggesting a population control on the national level as the first priority. But in my post above, I've talked about Delhi's readiness to hold Commonwealth Games in 2010 and its ability to attract tourists and businesses. Still, I agree with the point made by you.

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  4. hi arun...that were some really good observations...we indians have got so used to "chalta hai" and "adjusting" attitude that we have stopped questioning ourselves and our leaders. It takes just 30 minutes of rainfall to stall the entire capital and shut country's largest airport. Shame on our leaders and shame on us who elect them.

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  5. there is one more problem... daily 4.5 K vehicles are registered in Delhi... and each middle class family holds 2-3 (second hand )cars... there should be an increase in the number of public and office transport facilities.. else the condition will deteriorate even further.....

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  6. IT,S TRUELYsaid; all these problems of india are evoked due to improper organisation and administration... , there is no proper division of work and moreover govt. personnels haven't know their own job descriptions.... our citizens esp. govt. workers are misusing our democratic constitution .... THESE all troubles can be solved if there will be privatisation of all areas

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  7. Rajbir, thanks for the comments. I don't know how efficient will be our system if everything was privatised. Regulatory authorities need to operate to see if the private players are operating in interest of the citizens. Exploitation of citizens by private firms like GMR at Delhi Airport and Reliance due to its oil problem, are common. I think our planning process should be improved and implementation should be enhanced further - be it the government agencies or the private ones.

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  8. It's bad....... our country is not able to hold games... is is using.....'SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST''....... THE MONEY WHICH WILL BEUSED FOR POOR ONES , NOW INSTEAD OF THAT..........USING FOR ONLY GAMES

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  9. Hi Friends, I'm not sure I've understood exactly what u wanted to convey, but yes, this controversy has been running for a long time. Should India spend so much money on creating infrastructure for the Games in India when our basic facilities have not been created. Very debatable issue.

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  10. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST,,,, meand stronger pressing weaker ones.... ,,, .govt. going to spend lots oof money for this..... u know govt. is taking out all beggers ,,poor ones...from delhi..foor only show off....it's wrong.....it's good to holdgames but procedure is wrong..... in coming 2010 ...india will host of world hockey championship....

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  11. The worries about Delhi's preparations for the Commonwealth Games have been expressed by everyone openly now. Check out the news report on Times Of India on the same.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Commonwealth-Games-chief-plans-to-send-SoS-to-PM/articleshow/5007147.cms

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  12. After so much criticism, it's better that we appreciate some efforts by the govt. of Delhi to create a world-class experience for the Commonwealth games. Check out the 7-Star toilets plan.

    http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2009/09/19&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01903&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

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  13. IT'S GOOD THAT OUR PLANNING BOARD GETS AWAKED AND DOING ALL PROCEEDINGS,,,,, BUT CRITICISM BY MEDIA MAKE THEM AWARE,,, MORE ACTIVE,,, WE CRITICISE FROM POSITIVE PT OF VIEW ,,,,, BCZ YEH HAMARA DESH HAI,,, ANY WE ALL R GIVING BEST WISHES TO UR INDIA...AKHIR HAMARI ESTEEM KA SAWAL HAI,,,,,???

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  14. Curtaining the reality will not hide it for ever. Government of Delhi, IOC and Govt. of India are clearly hiding the truth of Delhi from the 71-team delegation arriving Delhi. Won't they be shocked when they see the reality next year during the game? Check out a news report by NDTV

    http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/delhi_angry_2010_games_but_roads_closed_now.php

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  15. I THINK OUR COUNTRY HAS TO... GIVE ... RESPONSIBILITY TO MELBOURNE AGAIN ,,, BCZ... COUNTDOWN STARTED,,, ONLY ,, 365.. DAYS LEFT... FROM OCT. BUT OUR INDIA HASN'T DONE ... PREPARATION UP TO 50%,,, SO GOING TO MELBOURNE AGAIN,,,, SPORT LIKERS,,, WHERE ,, HELD IN 2006

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