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| Vision Statement |
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| The basic objective for the Delhi Heritage Route Project was to link the various heritage sites and precincts of the city, so that they became more accessible and its experience made more attractive. In professional terms, it was based on four visions, which mutually reinforced each other: |
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Proposed view of Daryaganj stretch |
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first, to bring about a shift in the way the architectural heritage was treated, from the narrow concerns of protection to the broader perspectives of conservation; |
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second, to align the conservation of architectural heritage with the imperatives of urban design and thereby create a more imagable city; |
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third, to relate these initiatives in the field of conservation and urban design with new strategies of sustainable tourism; |
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and finally, to engage, as professionals, with the city and its problems as activists, in order to bring about change. |
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A pilot study, focusing on the stretch from Red Fort to Humayun’s Tomb, received a grant from the World Monuments Fund, Sustainable Tourism Initiative sponsored by American Express in 2008, which kick-started the project. |
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| Thanks largely to this grant received from World Monuments Fund, the INTACH, Delhi Chapter was able to translate these visions into reality. It undertook a comprehensive study of the Red Fort to Humayun’s Tomb stretch of the route as a precursor to developing the larger network of Heritage Routes for the city; eight such routes have been identified for development. By linking the city’s magnificent architectural heritage to public open space systems, the study has demonstrated that degraded urbanscapes could be transformed to make Delhi a ‘World Class City’. |
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Proposed access to Purana Qila
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The pilot study is part of a larger network of heritage routes across the city. It was conceived by the Delhi Chapter of INTACH, a non-government society engaged in the field of heritage conservation for the last 25 years. The Red Fort to Humayun’s Tomb stretch of the route is a very busy city artery. It is, by all measures, a so called ‘difficult’ civic space, routinely ignored or dealt with in a piece-meal manner by civic agencies. INTACH, Delhi Chapter had in the past taken up similar challenges, as for example the conservation of several neglected, unprotected heritage buildings, thus bringing them into the public domain. It was a natural progression to enlarge that vision and link heritage monuments in the city as heritage routes to transform the cognitive image of the city. While the pilot study is only 10 km long, the whole scheme will extend over 50 km across the city and provide access to almost all the major monuments and heritage precincts of the city. |
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| The monuments along the route and its appurtenant areas have been visualised as spatial nodes in a crowded city, as pauses along busy city thoroughfares. These spaces could be turned into valuable public parks and plazas for leisure and recreation. They would also become well defined foregrounds to monuments, with carefully designed public facilities and amenities, which would enhance the experience of the monument. These spaces are currently treated in an indifferent manner by the different civic agencies, thus resulting in degraded environments. This is because there is no coordination between the different civic agencies who deal with these areas. Thus the vision was to initiate dialogue between the various stakeholders and leverage coordinated strategies of conservation and urban design to improve the quality of the environment around heritage precincts and other areas appurtenant to heritage sites. By drawing these long neglected areas of the city into the public realm, the project would enhance the image of the city. |
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| While the heritage of the city is well known and nostalgically recalled whenever occasions arise, the fact is that its presence is not evident in the image of the city. The city appears to be growing in an anomic manner, responding to the demands of various special interest groups; a strong civic ideal does not guide its development. The heritage route project posits such an ideal; it challenges the ad hocism that prevails in the development of the city. When the entire network of heritage routes is completed and other related conservation projects which are simultaneously being planned, implemented, it will demonstrate the virtues of a strong, heritage directed vision supported by purposeful action. It will enable the government to make a credible case to achieve the final goal articulated by INTACH’s Delhi Chapter in its vision for the city, which is to get Delhi encrypted in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Cities. This process will require the whole-hearted involvement of the government, but as the report demonstrates, the goal is not only compelling but achievable as well. For the first time, it also offers the various civic authorities who manage the city, a common vision to work towards, and a pragmatic road map to realize it. |
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View of proposed Street Furniture cluster
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| There will be several spin-off benefits on account of the implementation of this project. It will boost tourism in the city and empower the visitor to experience the city as a destination instead of a one-night transit halt to visit other tourist destinations in India, particularly Rajasthan and the Taj Mahal. As Delhi becomes a tourist destination, it will further boost the development of heritage precincts and strengthen the heritage route. In this manner heritage conservation will become a sustainable tourism initiative. |
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Proposed Heritage Walk maps
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Linking architectural heritage and civic spaces reflects a new approach to conservation in India. Contemporary conservation in India is the heir to well-established, century old colonial practices. These practices sought to protect only a few exemplary monuments produced by the prolific ancient civilization it controlled. Perhaps to ease their administrative burden, the colonial archaeologists isolated the monuments they chose to protect from the day-to-day lives of citizens. Consequently, a perception got embedded in the public mind that heritage was represented by only the few monuments selected for protection and that its protection was primarily the responsibility of the government. This meant that the vast numbers of unprotected architectural heritage were ignored and fell prey to abuse, misuse and destruction, often in the cause of development. INTACH was set up in 1985 to change these debilitating perceptions and practices, and its Delhi Chapter has focused its attention on the unprotected architectural heritage of the city. |
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| There are only 174 monuments that are currently protected by the government in Delhi, while INTACH Delhi Chapter has listed 1208 heritage buildings and 26 heritage precincts of significance in the city that need to be conserved. Even the monuments that are protected and these include three World Heritage Sites, are isolated from the daily lives of citizens and have little to contribute to the urban experience. It is in this light, that the INTACH’s Delhi Chapter conceptualized the Delhi Heritage City Project. |
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| Over the last twenty five years the Delhi Chapter of INTACH has contributed in various ways to change the perceptions of the public and government towards the conservation of heritage. Many more monuments are now planned to be protected and the categories of heritage precincts and archaeological parks has entered the official lexicon of the urban planner. It was in this context that the INTACH Delhi Chapter mooted the idea of having Delhi encrypted in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Cities; it is a logical progression in the evolution of conservation strategies. The pilot study contained in this report is an important step to achieve that goal. |
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| The project brought together several professionals from different disciplines. While some may have worked together on smaller scale projects, in this the city is, in fact, the canvas. It was a transformative experience for the professionals and that, in no small measure, has made a qualitative difference to the city-level interventions that have been proposed. It is not easy to construct an overarching vision to guide the development of such a large, heterogeneous metropolis, but this project has demonstrated that in the case of Delhi, heritage offered the most effective tool to construct and articulate such a vision. As the report goes on to explain, the vision is not only heritage-centric, but also visitor-centric and citizen-centric; it will create a better city for all. That too, is the vision underpinning this project. |
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| Strictly speaking, there was no conventional client to engage INTACH Delhi Chapter as consultants to work on the project. The WMF–Amex Grant enabled the INTACH Delhi Chapter to initiate suo moto action, to offer solutions to problems that had not even been perceived by the civic agencies, our putative clients. It cast the professionals who worked on the project as activists forging change. The activist role of the professional was also part of the vision guiding the project. It was greatly facilitated by one of the conditions built into the WMF-Amex Grant, which was that the proposals had to be implemented. The design work that is being presented in this report will have to be ‘negotiated’ with civic authorities for implementation. The design team is prepared to go through with this pragmatic process: negotiated decision making is, after all, inevitable in such large and complex civic projects. |
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Firoz Shah Kotla – View of proposed access to the fort
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| The comprehensive nature of the report makes it a credible document, which could easily be adopted by the hard-pressed civic agencies that are distracted by day-to-day issues of management and governance. Its credibility has been reinforced because part of the grant funds was earmarked to construct prototypes of the various elements proposed in the design proposals. So far, there have been positive responses from ‘clients’, and there is every likelihood that a substantial portion of the pilot study will get implemented: for example, there are already firm commitments to implement the proposals made for the Feroz Shah Kotla and Purana Qila nodes. More proposals outside the pilot project are also under active consideration for implementation by the civic authorities. In sum, therefore, the vision to play the activist in the development of civic spaces and casting aside the cynicism that usually pervades professional involvement in large civic projects may also be succeeding. |
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| This is the vision and hope offered by the Delhi Heritage Route project. |
A.G.K. Menon |
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