| DELHI SNAPSHOT |
 SIZE
893.46 sq. km
POPULATION
15 million
NUMBER OF CARS
12.67 lakh
NUMBER OF TWO-WHEELERS
26.50 lakh
PER CAPITA INCOME (2002-03)
Rs 43,751
IMMIGRANT INFLOW PER YEAR
3,00,000
ROAD LENGTH (2002)
28,508 km
PEAK POWER DEMAND
3,500 mw
WASTE GENERATED
6,500 tonnes per day |
It remains the worst city to live
and work in for women; its traffic, even on good days, is fast and
chaotic; and it still remains one of the most polluted cities in
the country. Yet, Delhi continues to thrive as an investment destination,
and a place to live in, something it largely owes to its position
as the capital of the country (that means both the local government
and the Union government, which is based here, are interested in
the city's well-being). The last helps it draw more water from neighbouring
states and more power from the Northern Grid than an 'ordinary'
city-state (that is what Delhi is) in its position can. Then, there's
the fact that the Supreme Court is based here (for instance, the
city's buses moved to CNG in 2000 following an order from the court).
It also helps that the city has been successful in selling the larger
NCR (National Capital Region) to investors. Thus, although Gurgaon
is part of Haryana, and Noida and Ghaziabad part of Uttar Pradesh,
people living in these satellites of the capital, even companies
based there, view themselves as part of Delhi.
| Delhi Plus: The
Supreme Court and power |
In addition to everything the city has going for it are the efforts
of Delhi's Congress government, such as the Bhagidari scheme targeted
at increasing citizen-participation in local administration; Delhi
Vision 2010, an infrastructure-heavy blueprint of how the city will
transform itself by the time it hosts the Commonwealth Games in
2010 (the Delhi Metro, which will be a 110-kilometre railway connecting
parts of Delhi to Gurgaon and Noida by 2010, is at the core of this);
and an infrastructure binge, especially in terms of flyovers-these
have helped make the Ring Road, which circumscribes the city, into
a signal-free thoroughfare, and the state government is now talking
about another elevated Ring Road atop the existing one to ease congestion.
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