List of Publications

‘Delhi Under Hammer’, the Crisis of Sealing and Demolition, by A.K. Jain, 2010, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, pp 146, Rs 500/-When in February 2006, the Supreme Court directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to demolish certain illegal properties in Delhi, no one imagined that this would snowball into a major human and political crisis. The sealing and demolitions triggered arrests, firing, deaths, strikes and agitations that shook the central, state and local governments. It rattled the masses, the businessmen, the Parliament and the Assembly. There were unprecedented confrontations between the people, the judiciary and the government. The impending emergency was met by bringing out a new planning legislation in the shape of Master Plan for Delhi 2021 published in February 2007, which became a bestseller overnight. It established a new connect between the common man and government and ushered a new era of urban planning in India. What was going behind the scenes makes an interesting story. „Delhi Under Hammer – The Crisis of Sealing and Demolitions‟ by A.K. Jain (who was Commissioner (planning) during this period, gives an account of the crisis and troubleshooting. The book “Delhi Under Hammer – The Crisis of Sealing and Demolitions”, is not about the “plan”, but about “planning”.

Lutyens’ Delhi

by A.K. Jain, Bookwell Publishers, New Delhi, p 202, Rs. 1195/-

The Connaught place, Central Vista, Parliament House, India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Secretariat, Lodhi Garden, Jantar Mantar- these are some of the names known all over India as the icons of Delhi. King George V proclaimed Delhi as an Imperial Capital of India in 1911. With this Delhi became the centre-stage of power, politics and progress. Edwin Lutyens, its architect ,created a panorama of India’s greatness in building of the New Delhi, kaleidoscope of India’s unique heritage and new vision.

This book on ‘Lutyens’ Delhi’ traces the history of the last 100 years and evolution of the capital of India. It discusses how the classical city embraced the rapid expansion of Delhi after the Independence and conservation efforts through the successive Master Plans starting with interim General Plan of Delhi in 1957.The forces of ‘development’ posed serious challenges and it was the Prime minister Indira Gandhi who created Delhi Urban Art Commission in 1973 to conserve ‘the only surviving garden city of India’. Thereafter in 1988, Rajiv Gandhi as a Prime Minister put a full-stop to conversion of bungalows into group housing in Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone, covering about 26 sq.km and 3000 bungalows.

The author gives an interesting account of the planning, development and conservation of New Delhi. He underlines that the Lutyens’ Delhi being the national pride can not be conceived as a ‘property’. This is an interesting book for those concerned with conservation of the heritage and Indian city.

Book Covers

Low Carbon City: Policy, Planning and Practice by A.K. Jain

Discovery Publishers, New Delhi, 2009, Pages 476, Price Rs. 2,000/-

ISBN 978-81-8356-468-7

The cities in India often present a depressing picture of poverty, slums, persisting shortages of water and power, rivers turning into drains, insanitation, pollution, traffic congestion and diseases. With the recent oil crisis, the situation has worsened. Most of the urban ills emanate from disregard or lack of understanding of the ecological dimension of planning and development. Whether there is a hope to turnaround urban India into Low Carbon Cities is a key issue.

The cornerstone in making the human habitat as low carbon is to adopt integrated approach towards ecology and environment. The urban environment cuts across the various aspects of the environment, the habitat, transportation and services management. The natural resources include the elements of air and noise, water (water bodies, river, lakes, drains and ponds- and ground water) and land with reference to open spaces, green areas and other surface and sub-surface conditions. The composite built environment includes the environmental infrastructure - water supply, sewerage, solid waste disposal and transportation network.

The quest for Low Carbon City development underlines the need to evolve innovative practices, such as, water conservation and recycling, dual-pipe system, balancing lakes and reservoirs, recovery of the river and water bodies and blue networks and green corridors. The landscape dimension and ecological approach are crucial in this pursuit. The book provides a detailed historiography and evolution of landscape heritage and greenery in Delhi and its successes and failures. The author underlines the conservation of city’s ecology, i.e. the ridge, the riverbed, water bodies and forest cover. An unexplored area is 600 km of canals and drainways of the city which are proposed to be developed as ‘greenways’ with simple, indigenous plantations, and by arresting the flow of untreated sewerage, wastewater and solid waste in these water channels. The author, who worked on Delhi Master Plan-2021 as Commissioner (Planning), suggests an integrated approach and the adoption of the concepts of Bio-drainage, Zero Run-off, energy efficiency and audit, use of alternative sources of energy, Zero-fossil Energy Development (ZED), bio-fuel recovery, waste recycling and reducing ecological footprints which add up to make a low carbon city.