Undoubtedly, Shivaji Place district centre, Raja Garden, has emerged as a major commercial centre in West Delhi. Several Malls and multiplexes are located here making it a popular weekend destination for West Delhiites. What has further added to its popularity is its proximity to Delhi Metro, as a result thousands of visitors come here during the weekend.

However, things are not so hunky dory, as it seems from a distance. No doubt, this bustling commercial centre provides a great shopping experience and fun but the excitement is marred by the problem of bad roads and parking shortage here.

Surprsingly, while so many malls and multiplexes have come up here in the last three years but the roads in the district centre have not been constructed even once. Right from Rajouri Garden Police Station to Shivaji College, there is no road worth its name. "It's really annoying to see the state of affairs prevailing here. I have come here from South Extension, along with my family, for shopping , but after seeing the condition of road here, I would prefer to shop in South Delhi only, rather than coming here. It spoils your entire mood, says Ankit Khosla, a software Engineer and a resident of Kalkaji.

The civic agency has a deadline of August 31, 2008, to submit a status report regarding controlling cattle menace before the Delhi High Court. The civic body claims that it has caught 19,000 stray cattle to date, but there are over 30,000 stray cattle in the city.

"We have been facing a lot of resistance from the public while rounding up cattle in the city.

One of the main reasons for our action being unsuccessful in various places is lack of police protection," said a senior MCD official.

Ambedkar Nagar in Haiderpur near Shalimar Bagh seems to be in real mess these days. The project of a sewer pipeline started by DDA in Ambedkar Nagar has become a big nuisance for the residents. People have no problem with the ongoing project; the only thing they resent is how movement of traffic has been thrown out of gear. According to residents, the construction work got underway four months back.

"The pace of construction has been really sluggish," says Sachin, a commuter. This is an important intersection between Outer Ring Road and Haiderpur. As there are no proper traffic diversions and those visiting the area for the first time face a lot of difficulties. Apart from the commuters, the residents are also of the same view. "This road is becoming a veritable hell for the people as various government agencies have dug up roads for their respective works. Apart from DDA, NDPL has dug up the road," says Ram Kishan, a resident of the Haiderpur.

What is of major concern for residents is the complete absence of any traffic police. They should have made vehicular movement smoother to some extent by clearly finding out some diversion. Devendar Kumar Panchal, a mobile shop owner, says, "The business has been greatly affected by this digging activity. We did speak to DDA about the time frame of completion but no answer," he added.

A couple of Gurgaon-bound buses ply from Wazirpur Depot early morning. After this there is literally no other way left for the people to commute to Gurgaon. People with private vehicles also wonder how these people reach Gurgaon in 45 minutes while they take double time to travel the same distance. The reason is very simple: these call centre cab drivers believe in 'speeding' up the process. So they have to move with the times and burn up the road.

Most of these cabs are the ones which return to Gurgaon after dropping their employees to their respective destinations. On their way back, drivers prefer to ferry a few passengers with Rs 20 as the tariff charges. Right from the morning hours till 11o'clock at night these cabs are at your disposal.

"Cabs running from both sides - Gurgaon to North Delhi and back. Twenty rupees is a flat rate that we charge from people with AC facility," says Harvinder, a cab driver. So aren't they scared of getting caught? "We all have mobiles and once any one of us gets into any trouble the message is conveyed so, there is not much risk," adds Harvinder.

Demanding re-allotment of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board in Kashmir, the protestors held up traffic at 48 spots. The traffic police received 249 distress calls between 8.30 am and 12.50 pm.

"I picked a passenger at 9 am from Ganesh Nagar in east Delhi and was bound for Khaniya Nagar in North Delhi. But all roads were closed and there was a huge traffic jam," Manish Kumar Pandey, an auto-rickshaw driver, said. "With nowhere to go, I finally dropped her at ITO; she walked down to Indraprastha Metro Station from there."

One of the major blockades was at Darya Ganj, with some 900 BJP workers gathered there. "I left home, in Pitampura, at 9.15 am and, driving at a crawling pace, reached my office in Daryaganj at 11.45 am -- the entire Ring Road was jammed," said Atul Sharma, an employee of an insurance firm. Hundreds of activists also gathered in front of Liberty Cinema, at Karol Bagh, as also in Khajuri Khas, Seelampur, Bijwasan station (near Kapashera), Saraswati Vihar, Noida Morh to Akshardham stretch, and Uttam Nagar bus depot.

ITO chungi also saw a massive logjam with senior BJP and VHP leaders, including Delhi BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan and VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia, leading the protestors. "Our purpose is not to harass Delhi residents; we just want to draw the Centre's attention and put pressure on them to find a solution to the Amarnath issue," Harsh Vardhan said.

In south Delhi, traffic was affected at Lajpat Nagar, Ashram, Green Park, Badarpur, Safdarjung Hospital and Lodhi Road among other places.

In Gurgaon, the Expressway was blocked at Hero Honda Chowk, while police had to use the cane on agitators near Leisure Valley park.

This is mainly because of the presence of a large number of cranes and recovery vans on both sides of this road. These heavy vehicles are parked in such a way that a major portion of this main-road has been encroached upon by them. Says Ramesh Sharma, a resident of Khajan Basti, "These cranes remain stationed here throughout the day and cause a lot of inconvenience in the movement of traffic. Particularly, if you are coming from the side of Lajwanti Garden flyover and wants to take a left turn towards Ghantaghar then one has to be very careful, as any accident can happen with these cranes and recovery vans."

According to R. K. Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), North East District, this stretch has become more dangerous for pedestrians since most of the accident victims have been pedestrians. Last year the toll was 33 for the entire year Sadly this year it is 32 from just January to July The police claim that in the absence of proper streetlights most of the accidents occurred in the wee hours.

It is an important road for East bound residents. The road leads from the Seelampur Tpoint to ISBT Kashmere Gate. Lakhs of people use this road daily But there is no road crossing facility for pedestrians and the residents of nearby colonies who are forced to cross the road amid heavy vehicular movement. As per police officials, this is the main reason for the accidents.

Even though 43% of plots have been occupied by factory owners, the area has to do with non-functioning streetlights, potholed roads and spiralling crime graph. No wonder, there's a curfew-like situation after six in the evening. Jai Prakash, a contractor who frequently commutes to this area, has made it a point to return home by evening. ``Uprooted streetlights, deserted police posts, craters in the middle of the road and a rise in petty crimes... Bawana Industrial Area is decaying,'' he says.

Admitting that streetlighting is a major problem, local MLA Surendra Kumar says: ``Nothing has been done for the past two years to address this issue even though numerous complaints have been made to NDPL and local police.'' Labour and industries minister Mangat Ram Singhal is also not pleased with the state of affairs in the area.

``Maintenance of streetlights was handed over to NDPL by Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation Limited (DSIDC) six months back but in that period over 50 streetlight poles were stolen. I had convened an emergency meeting of all authorities concerned recently in which it was decided to construct fences and walled boundaries around the affected areas. A special team consisting of NDPL, DSIDC and police personnel has beenformed to ensure these thieves are nabbed,'' he says.

NDPL puts the blame on deteriorating law and order situation. Santosh Kumar, junior engineer, streetlighting, NDPL, says: ``We had started installing new feeder pillars in these sectors from April 1. Within the next 20 days, we had completed, 65% of the work. Yet, to our horror, we found that these boxes were broken and all important components taken away. We have lodged complaints but there's no visible improvement in the crime scene.'' NDPL PRO Ajay Maharaj said that the company will ensure 95% performance once the thefts stop. Most of the 4,000 streetlights don't function.

As usual, waterlogging and traffic jams took the charm out of the monsoon season once again. Bad roads coupled with waterlogging and non-functional traffic signals led to massive pile-ups on several roads across the capital. The stretch from Vikas Marg Chungi to ITO witnessed the worst congestion of the day Traffic jam lasted there for over four hours on Thursday

With 19 mm of rainfall from 8.30 am till evening, it was a nightmare for commuters. "It took me over an hour to reach ITO from Karkari Mod. The vehicles were moving at a snail's pace and I missed an important appointment at CP at 4 pm," said Nazma. She travels between Karkari Mod and CP via ITO everyday.

Waterlogging at Raj Ghat and under IP flyover - the signal at Raj Ghat too had gone bust - added to the massive jam near ITO.

Surbhi Goel Azadpur
Situation 1: Jam-packed Azadpur flyover leading to Shalimar Bagh, heavy duty vehicles crowding up the traffic signal for u-turn

Situation 2: Vehicles following the diversion and turning left from Adarsh Nagar Police Station get stuck near the u-turn for Model Town. Non-stop traffic from Jahangirpuri is intersected by the ones taking u-turn

Welcome to the chaotic and cacophonous Azadpur crossing which is soon going to be a 4-level intersection point. At present three projects - PWD's underpass and flyover and DMRC's Metro line - are under different stages of development. Though in the next few months, life will definitely come up roses after the completion of these three projects, as of now, things are really getting out of control. Traffic marshals are conspicuous by their absence at all the major diversions.

Red light-free movement at ITO crossing sounds like a dream, since it seems the underpass that can make this possible is jinxed.

First, the Public Works Department (PWD) could not start construction as a water pipeline to the Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant was in the way. And now, the traffic police have not been able to successfully implement the traffic diversion plan for nearly a month.

To begin work on the underpass, the PWD requires the cordoning off of a portion of Vikas Marg. To make it possible, the traffic police came up with a plan to divert the entire traffic on Vikas Marg on to the slip road leading to Geeta Colony. Motorists moving towards East Delhi from ITO through Vikas Marg would have to take a compulsory left and then a U-turn on the road towards Gandhi Nagar to go towards the Akshardham temple or Laxmi Nagar.

This diversion plan was put in place on July 4. But several trial runs later the traffic police are still grappling with the heavy load of motorists that Vikas Marg sees. The five-lane traffic of Vikas Marg, when diverted to the four-lane slip road, is leading to a traffic jam. Nearly a month later, the traffic police still cannot decide on making the diversion permanent or not, which is in turn delaying construction. "There are problems during peak hours and we have to make changes to smoothen the flow of traffic each day. Hopefully, we will be able to solve this problem in a week's time," DCP Traffic (New Delhi) Suvashish Chaudhary said.

To be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 73.7 crore, the chungi project was given approval in November last year. Construction was to begin in March this year and the initial deadline for completion was December this year. The project was initially delayed after the Delhi Jal Board said that a water pipeline to the Sonia Vihar plant passes through the area where the underpass is to be built. In March, one of the pipelines burst, creating further problems.

"The pipeline was nearly 30-years-old. We made changes in our construction plan and created a slip road to avoid the pipeline. We also relocated two other pipelines," a PWD engineer said.

The underpass will serve as an important link between East Delhi and other parts of the Capital. The ITO intersection is one of the busiest in the city, where the average stoppage time can even touch 10-15 minutes per cycle in peak hours, much above the standard stoppage time of 180 seconds.

With the underpass in place, all right turns on main intersections will be closed. Traffic turning right will use the slip roads to reach the loops and finally take the underpass to reach their destinations. Four cloverleaves will also be built simultaneously.

MORE THAN six decades back, except an ashram for brahmacharis, all that could be found here was vacant land. Then people started migrating here from the adjoining Bhogal and far off Ballabgarh areas. The area got its name because of the ashram. Today, this area is a concrete jungle, with not even an inch of open space. All the single unit houses have been turned into multi-storied apartments now. It is only a few meters away from the Ring Road and very strategically located along the Mathura Road, but residents here are not happy because of poor basic civic amenities. Roads The main and internal colony roads, are in a very bad shape. Residents complain that the Delhi Jal Board, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) or the telecom companies dig up the roads and no one bothers to repair them.

Roads are never levelled after the work is complete. The situation in two of the lanes in the colony is quite bad. The road here has been dug up for about a month now, as part of the re-carpeting work. But no further work can be seen. The delay was due to a tussle between the contractor and the engineering department of the MCD. While the contractor intends to work at night, the officials want him to work during the day. "It has become difficult for us to move out of the house. I park my car in the office and am forced to commute on my bike, as it is difficult to drive into the colony," complains B. D. Sharma, a resident. Parks The area, which was once an open land with lots of greenery around the ashram, does not even have a single park or a playground.

There has been no development on the part of the civic agencies in the last decade. Bad roads, no footpaths, choked drains and punctured water pipelines have become a part of the Okhla Industrial Area. Though recently, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) sanctioned a fund of around Rs 100 crore for the project, the inhabitants are not hopeful. According to the project guidelines, all the roads will be recarpeted, the existing drains will be remodelled and wherever required, new drains will be constructed. The footpaths, almost nonexistent in the area, will now be made according to the norms, i.e. 1.5-m wide.

At present, the roads are full of potholes and the continuous movement of heavy vehicles has worsened the condition. There is knee-deep water during monsoon as the drains have become non-existent due to encroachments and there is no outlet for the water Owners of industries that deal in paper and cardboard boxes have to suffer the most even during minimal rain. Water enters their units and once the paper rims get wet, they do not run on the machine and go waste. "

Housing more than 1500 industrial units and employing lakhs of people, Udyog Vihar is in a mess with bad roads and overflowing sewer lines. The open sewer line stretching more than 3.2 kilometers in length that passes through Udyog Vihar has been a bane for several years. The rain and sewer water coming from DLF Phase-II falls into this open sewer. "Even after a brief spell of shower, the sewer line overflows with dirty water. Even roads adjacent to the nullah are inundated with knee deep dirty water. The employees coming to office and factory have to face a harrowing time then. Overflowed sewer water also gets into several industrial houses causing huge loss," says Ashok Kolhi, general secretary, Chambers of Industries of Gurgaon.

Hamvir Singh, the Deputy General Manger of Haryana State Industrial Development (HSIDC) at his office informs Gurgaon Plus, "Of course, we are aware of the problems and trying our best to fulfil the demands at the earliest. To construct RCC box over the nullah, an estimated amount of Rs 7 crore has been sanctioned. After invitation of the tenders, a Delhi based firm has got the work. From first week of May this year, the work has started. The completion period of the work is 18 months."

With the increase in the number of shops in that area, this residential colony has been commercialised beyond repair. The parking of vehicles seems to have become a major headache for all. Even the roadside vendors are also not lagging behind in adding to the prevailing chaos. Throwing rules and regulations to the winds, some people just create their own parking space -- concern for others be damned.