NEW DELHI: The prospect of East Azad Nagar being regularised in a pilot project by MCD, officially unconfirmed as yet, left residents there with mixed feelings. They heartily welcomed the benefits such a step would bring to their east Delhi colony, but also expressed opposition to the possible razing of some shops and homes.
Situated close to Geeta Colony and Krishna Nagar, East Azad Nagar has narrow lanes lined with shops selling food, clothes and grocery. There are four- and five-storey residential flats along the main road.
“It is good that the authorities are planning to decongest the main road here and to regularise our colony, but is bringing down shops and houses the only way forward?” asked Taranjeet Singh, a shop owner in East Azad Nagar. “If our houses were to be demolished, why did MCD levy conversion charges on us?”
Sumit Sharma, who lives in Krishna Nagar but works in East Azad Nagar, provided another view when he said, “We hear some houses are likely to be brought down, but this is necessary to widen the road.” MCD sources said that the regularisation plan has identified around 99 plots bearing houses of different sizes to make way for wider roads.
On Tuesday, TOI saw electricity lines hanging low over the narrow lanes and poor drainage that had left the roadside waterlogged. The shops are mostly housed on the ground floors of the buildings with residences on the higher floors, as provided for under MCD’s mixed land use policy.
“We have been hearing about the road widening for a long time, but nothing has been done. The number of vehicles has increased, but the road network remains the same,” noted BS Vohra, member, East Delhi Residents’ Welfare Associations Joint Forum. “We will wait for a final order on the matter to make further comments.”
