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New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
Speaking at a seminar here on "Save the Walled City'', Mr. Kapoor said: "There will be greater opportunity for intensive development in the area with the Metro becoming fully operation next year. This area will then become more approachable with more people able to get there in less than 15 minutes." In a bid to save the unique character of the Walled City, which is disappearing due to a lack of planning, policy makers and academicians met to discuss new solutions for age-old problems. While they all agreed that the solutions were many, the only problem was the implementation, they claimed. Providing a platform for all the stakeholders, the seminar aimed to bring about mutually beneficial alliances among different agencies, which would aid the implementation of an action plan. "I had attended a similar seminar which was held in 1974. When I consulted my notes of that seminar, I found that the issues have not changed over the years and the problems that were facing the city then are relevant even today," said the Union Tourism and Culture Minister, Jagmohan. He also suggested the creation of a task force for restoration and conservation of heritage buildings in the area. Echoing the same sentiment, the Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs, Vijay Goel, said: "It is my firm belief that until and unless the dream of institutionalising a Walled City Development Board is realised, nothing substantial can be done to improve the present conditions. This Board will be all-powerful and will reduce the multiplicity of agencies. Efforts have been made to improve the condition of the area but these efforts have been disjointed and without focus. This main problem in the Walled City is its unplanned and haphazard growth, as no attempt has been made since Independence towards systematic planning." Mr. Goel also emphasised the need for a White Paper on the Walled City - which would list out the problems, solutions as well as the set the time frame in which the agencies would implement them. "Old Delhi Railway Station which was established for convenience of the public and to cater to a small number of 10,000 commuters daily is more a nuisance than a convenience. The plans to conserve and preserve the Walled City will not bear fruits unless the station is shifted to some other location or restricted to city services only," he suggested. Stressing the importance of drawing up a comprehensive master plan for development of Chandni Chowk, the Programme Officer, UNESCO, Prithviraj Pereirra, said: "The Walled City has very interesting spaces of universal interaction, which means a lot to an agency like UNESCO. But there is a need to look at preserving the Walled City in a holistic manner. The first step is to have a listing of all the assets. It is essential that master plan be drawn up, which will look at all the issues of conservation as well as development in a comprehensive manner. The next step is to create a geographic information system or an environmental information system.''
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