The new Law requiring a builder to provide, both temporary and a
permanent flat per each family of 322 sq. ft. has been misused to the
maximum by the builder-political machine.
All major builders in smaller and major cities of India are connected with the ruling party of the state. It means, if it is Congress party in New Delhi, most all builders see it convenient to accommodate the high and mighty members of the party.
Not necessarily, elected members either. Local war lords, land barons, major industrialists and businessmen, already have their own candidates in the government in most suitable ministries and bureaucratic manors.
In Bangalore, Karnataka, the same game is played with BJP. The main opposition party in Indian parliament. In Chennai, It was M Karunanidhi's DMK which decided who to favor.
In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, it is Narendra Modi, another BJP chief minister who gets builders lands and release from court objection whenever the residents object to their being displaced.
This is India, not America.
Plum forgot, In Maharashtra, everybody and their brothers-in-law, both figuratively and literally, are beholden to the Builders and builders love it.
...and I am Sid Harth@sidileak.com
An
experiment to redevelop a New Delhi slum into a series of low-income
housing towers around the city’s first luxury skyscraper has reached
that critical stage: the impasse.
Late last year, Raheja Developers Ltd. announced plans to build the city’s first skyscraper in West Delhi. According to a statement from the firm, it would work with Dubai-based Arabtec Construction LLC to build a 54-floor tower “with skyclub and helipad.” Arabtec constructed the emirate’s 2,716-foot Burj Khalifa.
The West Delhi building will have roughly 170 premium apartments, according to Navin Raheja, the Indian firm’s chairman. He could not provide exact figures for apartment size but said they would certainly be larger than 1,000 square feet each. The building won’t actually be called Raheja Phoenix, as the earlier statement said. “I never use English names,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday. Instead, the building will be called Raheja Minar.
Once construction starts, it can be completed in two years, said Mr. Raheja.
But when will the construction clock actually start ticking? It’s already more than two years behind schedule.
The
skyscraper is part of a mixed development on nearly 13 acres of land in
Kathputli owned by the Delhi Development Authority, the city’s planning
agency and its largest land-owner. The area is presently home to a
neighborhood of puppeteers, drummers, jugglers and acrobats. In the
vicinity of the skyscraper, Raheja Developers needs to build 2,800
322-square-foot flats for these families. Mr. Raheja said his firm plans
to build these in six 14-floor towers — that would come to more than 30
flats per floor.
The entire redevelopment is likely to cost three to four billion rupees ($60 million to $80 million), he said.
In 2009, the DDA prepared a schedule of construction work that said building at Kathputli would begin in June that year and be completed in June last year. A neighborhood door-to-door survey, which includes recording a video of each family standing in front of their existing house, is nearly complete. But as of this month, there was no sign that construction is beginning anytime soon.
Mr. Raheja says he can’t begin work until the residents have been moved into transit camps that he is supposed to build, and for which the DDA has yet to provide him sufficient land. Kathputli colony residents say they won’t move until the DDA provides them a list of all the families who are eligible for free flats and promises in writing to return all of them to this site once construction is completed.
Mr. Raheja says that the first site offered for a temporary transit camp for Kathputli residents was embroiled in legal issues, while at two other proposed sites he faced local political opposition. Local residents and their representatives did not want to have the transit camp nearby, and objected to the DDA.
“Nobody wants poor people to be their neighbor,” said Mr. Raheja.
A fourth site that the DDA has offered is only big enough to house 800 families, not the 2,800 families he needs to build temporary shelter for, he said.
The impasse this project is facing, and the delay so far, aren’t at all unusual for the city. According to a report from real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India, as many as 63 real estate projects around Delhi that were supposed to supply 40,000 units of housing are four years behind schedule for reasons that range from lack of capital to “socio-political reasons.”
The performers of Kathputli — a popular stop in the city for foreign journalists and amateur photographers — have been here at least 40 years, and it may well have been the inspiration for the “magician’s ghetto” in Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”. After four decades of negotiations for legal rights to this area or to get resettled in a centrally located neighborhood, and after weathering at least one demolition of their homes in the 1970s, it’s understandable that they’re a little suspicious of this latest venture.
Since they work for themselves, they depend on being in the center of the city in order to find out quickly about jobs like weddings and birthday parties, which is why they say they have said no over the years to moving to sites that are further away.
Dilip Bhatt, the president of the main puppeteers’ association here, said that over a year ago his group had filed a Right-to-Information request seeking answers to their two key questions about the redevelopment, as well as several others. But they haven’t got the information they want yet, said the 60-year-old.
He said families were worried that once they moved to the transit camps, the DDA might pull a bait-and-switch, asking them to live there permanently.
In
his open ground-floor room, drums line a shelf on the back wall and
drum lids are stacked, one next to the other like dinner plates, on
another shelf. From under the pillow on the bed he pulled out a copy of a
Times of India article about the planned skyscraper.
“What is this? What will be in it? It doesn’t look like it’s for us,” he said. “If this is here, who will let us come back here?”
The DDA did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Raheja says he plans to persevere with the skyscraper project, and said he hoped city authorities would be more steadfast in overcoming opposition to the transit camps.
But the experience so far raises some questions over how successful this mixed-development will be if it ever does get built. If Delhi residents don’t want to accept Kathputli residents as their neighbors temporarily, won’t a luxury skyscraper surrounded by low-income housing towers face similar problems?
“I am building it,” said Mr. Raheja, ” I’ll have to face the consequences.”
You can follow India Real Time @indiarealtime.
...and I am Sid Harth@sidileak.com
All major builders in smaller and major cities of India are connected with the ruling party of the state. It means, if it is Congress party in New Delhi, most all builders see it convenient to accommodate the high and mighty members of the party.
Not necessarily, elected members either. Local war lords, land barons, major industrialists and businessmen, already have their own candidates in the government in most suitable ministries and bureaucratic manors.
In Bangalore, Karnataka, the same game is played with BJP. The main opposition party in Indian parliament. In Chennai, It was M Karunanidhi's DMK which decided who to favor.
In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, it is Narendra Modi, another BJP chief minister who gets builders lands and release from court objection whenever the residents object to their being displaced.
This is India, not America.
Plum forgot, In Maharashtra, everybody and their brothers-in-law, both figuratively and literally, are beholden to the Builders and builders love it.
...and I am Sid Harth@sidileak.com
The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth « Bookle+
www.topcogitoergosum.com/?p=625Jan 10, 2012 – Home Page Today's Paper Video Most Popular Times Topics Search All NYTimes.com Starred results for The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum - TypePad
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/Jun 7, 2011 – The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth | Cogito Ergo Sum ... You +1'd this ... The Wall Shit Journal an I: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth ...
The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: July 2011
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/2011/.../index.htmlwww.bigcogitoergosum.com/?p=21 - Cached. Jul 18, 2011 – The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Home Archives Profile Subscribe « The Wall Shit Journal ...Cogito Ergo Sum: The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth
gosumercogito.blogspot.com/.../wall-shit-journal-and-i-sid-harth_27...Dec 27, 2011 – Jun 7, 2011 – The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth | Cogito Ergo Sum ... You +1'd this ... The Wall Shit Journal an I: Sid Harth | My Sister ...
The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum
www.sidileak.us/2011/06/the-wall-shit.htmlNov 6, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, June 11, 2011 As ...
You +1'd this The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth - blogs democracy
blogsdemocracy.soup.io/post/.../The-Wall-Shit-Journal-and-I-SidJun 9, 2011 – This page contains an inclusion of queries for posts about democracy on blogs. It provides the blogs-democracy-feed . The feed is included into ...You +1'd this The Wall Shit Journal and I - Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?page_id=295The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth. The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth. Thursday, July 7, 2011. Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth « Cogito Ergo Sum World
cogitoergosumworld.com/?p=1049Aug 12, 2011 – Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth
thewallshitjournalandisidharth.blogspot.com/Sep 30, 2011 – Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, ...Sid Harth - The Wall Shit Journal and I
www.bestcogitoergosum.com/?page_id=4Jul 9, 2011 – *Although she later said that she had wished she had been called by her given name of Elizabeth, she was always addressed by the nickname ...
Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth « Hindutva
www.bigcogitoergosum.com/?p=21Jun 30, 2011 – Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth [...] Butler, Oops, Bimbette did it: Sid Harth | News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth …Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumsite.com/?p=64Jul 8, 2011 – Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth · Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth · The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth …Devil-may-care: Sid Harth: Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth
devilmaycaresidharth.blogspot.com/.../yah-allah-oops-tarantullah-sid...Aug 17, 2011 – Subscribe to RSS Devil-may-care Just another WordPress site Archive August 2011 July 2011 Tags Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth ...You shared this Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum
From your Google Reader subscriptionswww.sidileak.us/2011/06/yah-allah-oops-tarantullah-sid-harth.htmlJun 30, 2011 – Starred results for @mysistereileen.com #wsj.com cogito ergo sum: TerrorismGodhra train burning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ...Cogito Ergo Sum: Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth
gosumercogito.blogspot.com/.../yah-allah-oops-tarantullah-sid-harth...Jul 1, 2011 – By JAMES TARANTO. (Best of the tube this weekend: We'll be on Fox News Channel's "The Journal Editorial Report" discussing President ...You shared this Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth - The Wall Shit Journal and I ...
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/2011/.../y-3.htmlAug 11, 2011 – SEARCH Cogito Ergo Sum: Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth gosumercogito.blogspot.com/.../yah-allah-oops-tarantullah-sid-harth.Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth « …and I am Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumonline.com/?p=239Aug 3, 2011 – Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth | Sid Harth Sid Harth. www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=177 – Cached. Jul 1, 2011 – Jun 29, 2011 – Jun ...
Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth « Cogito Ergo Sum World
cogitoergosumworld.com/?p=928Aug 5, 2011 – Jun 30, 2011 – Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth [...] Butler, Oops, Bimbette did it: Sid Harth | News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth .Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah - Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=702Sep 7, 2011 – Starred results for Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth ... Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth ...Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth » USA: News, Views and ...
cogitoergosumusa.com/?p=1272Jul 27, 2011 – Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth ... My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted to know … ... Welcome, Sid HarthLogout ...
Rupert Murdoch's Requiem - Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=22135 days ago – The difficulty is that nothing, not even the arrival in Britain of Rupert Murdoch bearing reassurance, can automatically put the Sun on the ...The Wall Shit Journal and I « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=1612Dec 28, 2011 – Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth » My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth ... Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth « USA: News, Views and Reviews ...Foreign Policy and I « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=1318Nov 19, 2011 – Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth …. and I: Sid Harth http://www.sidileak.us/2011/06/the-4.html about 4 hours ...You shared this on Blogger · Jan 31, 2012 · Public Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumsite.com/?p=59Jul 8, 2011 – Jun 2, 2011 – My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth Everything you always wanted to know about my sister … Judy Miller, and Rupert Murdoch are lined …You shared this on Blogger · Jul 13, 2011 · Public Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth: Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth
wassupdocsidharth.blogspot.com/.../rupert-murdochs-requiem-sid-ha...Jul 13, 2011 – C'est Merde, Oops, Rupert Murdoch's Demise: Sid Harth | Global … ... News of Rupert Murdoch's World, Oops, Death: Sid Harth | USA: News …You shared this Are we There yet, Oops, 2012?: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum - TypePad
bakulaji.typepad.com/are_we_there_yet_oops_201/.../a-5.htmlSep 6, 2011 – 11 hours ago – Jul 8, 2011 – Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth on July 13, 2011 at 9:53 pm. [...] Tick Tech ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: July 2011
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/.../index.html23 hours ago – @mysistereileen.com @wsj.com | USA: News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth . ..... "I would just like to say one sentence," Rupert Murdoch said, .Devil-may-care: Sid Harth: Religion
bakulaji.typepad.com/devilmaycare_sid_harth/religion/Everything you always wanted to know about my sister Eileen and more. ... Balanced Budget Amendment: Sid Harth · Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth .The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth
thewallshitjournalandisidharth.blogspot.com/Sep 30, 2011 – Jul 5, 2011 – The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth .... Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid harth · The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth · The Wall ...Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth « Cogito Ergo Sum World
cogitoergosumworld.com/?p=531Jul 20, 2011 – Jul 20, 2011 – Video: Murdoch Attacked! Deng Fights Back! …. Rupert Murdoch's Wake: Sid Harth. Web Images Videos Maps News Shopping ...
The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: July 2011
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/.../index.htmlJun 25, 2011 – @mysistereileen.com @wsj.com | COGITO ERGO SUM, …and I am Sid Harth .... Earn an intelligence degree online at American Military ...Devil-may-care: Sid Harth: Religion
bakulaji.typepad.com/devilmaycare_sid_harth/religion/Thus Spake David (MadDogMessiah) Freedlander: Sid Harth ... by Barack ... WSJ: ISLAMABAD—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beseeched ... You +1'd this ...
Devil-may-care: Sid Harth: End of the World, Oops, wsj: Sid Harth
devilmaycaresidharth.blogspot.com/.../end-of-world-oops-wsj-sid-ha...Aug 19, 2011 – End of the World, Oops, wsj: Sid Harth. Subscribe to RSS Feed Subscribe to RSS. My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth. Everything you always wanted to ...
You shared this Devil-may-care: Sid Harth: End of the World, Oops, wsj: Sid Harth
devilmaycaresidharth.blogspot.com/.../end-of-world-oops-wsj-sid-ha...Aug 19, 2011 – Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, ...You shared this American Imperialism and I « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=2205Feb 9, 2012 – Thursday, February 9, 2012 As of 12:00 AM. |. The Wall Street JournalMiddle East. Welcome, Sid HarthLogout · Customer Center · My Journal ...Now you have done it, Warren Buffett « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=2106Feb 3, 2012 – Cogito Ergo Sum I think, Therefore, I am Sid Harth .... Stephanie Sinclair/VII for The Wall Street Journal Antonio Espinosa gets a punch.Barack Obama - News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth
www.sidileak.us/barack-obama/23 hours ago – Yours too. …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com … @mysistereileen.com @wsj.com #SupremeCourt #GreenHouse-Gas Suit | News, Views ...
Shafer: Time for WSJ editorial board to revisit that editorial ...
www.poynter.org/.../shafer-time-for-wsj-editorial-board-to-revisit-tha...Aug 19, 2011 – Jack Shafer looks back at the July 18 Wall Street Journal editorial ... http://www.facebook.com/people/Sid-Harth/100000011356053 Sid Harth ...
Uncategorized « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumsite.com/?cat=1&paged=7Jan 30, 2012 – Search sponsored by: Foreign Policy and I « Sid Harth Sid Harth ... The Wall Street Journal, Oops, I ain't got no time to complete this very long ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth « Cogito Ergo Sum World
cogitoergosumworld.com/?p=1049Aug 12, 2011 – Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit ... SEARCH Cogito Ergo Sum: @mysistereileen.com @online.wsj.com ...
It's the Budget, Stupid: Sid Harth « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumsite.com/?page_id=74Bam, Bam Thank you Mam, Oops, Mr President: Sid Harth | Cogito … ... Stupid: Sid Harth. Official Obama Website. | barackobama.com www.barackobama.com/dc Barack Obama needs your help in DC … ..... Go Fuck Yo Mama. …and I am Sid ...
Think Tank - Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?page_id=428Please send your login username and your real first and last name to journalcommunity@wsj.com. Go Fuck Yo Mama. …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.
Of Onion and SmithsOnion « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=2098Feb 2, 2012 – Cogito Ergo Sum I think, Therefore, I am Sid Harth ... Says Mr H. “Cuz, I go. ... “OK, I am going to tell Mama, Oops, Yo Mama. ... Plan Your Visit » ...
Hindu Flesh Trade: Sid Harth
reocities.com/Athens/Forum/1050/flesh.html2000 Sid Harth ... Momin, our own demented donkey, "OKDOKEY" also known to his fucked up fans, perhaps ... If you don't like my language, go fuck yo mama.India's Superpower Euphoria: Sid Harth « Hindutva
www.bigcogitoergosum.com/?p=27Jul 26, 2011 – Jun 9, 2011 – alvida Maqbool Fida: Sid Harth India's Superpower Euphoria: .... All comments will display your real name. ... Go Fuck Yo Mama.Yah Allah, Oops, Tarantullah: Sid Harth « Cogito Ergo Sum World
cogitoergosumworld.com/?p=928Aug 5, 2011 – Go Fuck Yo Mama. …and I am Sid Harth @mysistereileen.com. Track replies to my comment. Go to Comments tab. This entry was posted on ...Devil may care: Sid Harth - Devil-may-care: Sid Harth
bakulaji.typepad.com/...sid_harth/.../devil-may-care-sid-harth-1.htmlJul 19, 2011 – SEARCH Starred results for Sid Harth "Sid Harth" wikileaks ... Sid Harth - .soc.culture.bengali - www.freak-search.com/. ... Go Fuck Yo Mama.
It's the Budget, Stupid: Sid Harth - blog*spot
itsthebudgetstupidsidharth.blogspot.com/.../its-budget-stupid-sid-hart...Aug 4, 2011 – Go Fuck Yo Mama. ...and I am Sid Harth @mysistereileen.com. Track replies to my comment. Go to Comments tab. Posted by cogitoergosum at ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth « …and I am Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumonline.com/?p=40Jun 11, 2011 – Please send your login username and your real first and last name to journalcommunity@wsj.com. Go fuck yo mama. …and I am Sid Harth ...You +1'd this Butler, Oops, Brahmin did it: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum
www.sidileak.us/2011/06/butler-oops-brahmin-did-it-sid-harth.htmlJun 11, 2011 – Say whats in your mind Go fuck yo Mama. Yo stupid dogs. Fix your motherfucking system. I tried three ... Butler, Oops, Brahmin did it: Sid Harth ...
Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=2132Feb 5, 2012 – Cogito Ergo Sum I think, Therefore, I am Sid Harth ... Thus Spake Sid Harth. Control Free Speech? ... From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ...Nice day to Kill Bob (not his real name) « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=2114Feb 4, 2012 – Thus Spake Sid Harth. Control Free Speech? Over my dead body! Nice day to kill Bob (not his real name). February 4, 2012. Not only Bob is ...Of Free Speech, Archana Khare, Oops, Salman ... - Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=1881Jan 22, 2012 – Oct 19, 2011 – End of the World, Oops, Anna Hazare: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen … …… Muslims across the world to kill British author Salman ...WaPo vs MOI « Sid Harth Sid Harth
www.sidharthsidharth.com/?p=1935Jan 25, 2012 – Jul 4, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth mysistereileen.com/?p=526 – Cached [...] The Devil and a ...You shared this on Blogger · Jan 31, 2012 · Public Political Shenanigans, India Ishtail: Sid Harth: August 2011
bakulaji.typepad.com/political_shenanigans_ind/2011/08/3 days ago – Starred results for Sid Harth "sid harth" Dr Manmohan Singh Hindus'Tantrum: Sid ... 4 days ago – Anna Hazare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en. wikipedia . ..... BJP is distancing from L K Advani's Nellore, Tamil Nadu speech.
You shared this on Blogger · Feb 12, 2012 · Public The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: July 2011
bakulaji.typepad.com/the_wall_shit_journal_and/.../index.htmlMy Sister Eileen: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted to know . ..... Dog: Free Speech Doesn't Include Judging--Now That Would Be News "Judge: 'Free ...Uncategorized « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth
www.cogitoergosumsite.com/?cat=1&paged=2Thus Spake Sid Harth Control Free Speech? Over my dead body! Chinese are coming, Chinese are coming February 7, 2012 What bothers me most about this ...US (Fucked-up) Foreign Policy and I « Bookle+
www.topcogitoergosum.com/?p=947Feb 8, 2012 – Jan 25, 2012 – 6 days ago – Jul 31, 2011 – Free Speech, India Ishtail: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: … Find me a Hotter than Hot-Potato of this, ...The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth « Don't get me started
www.cogitoergosumshop.com/?p=174Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, June 11, 2011 As ...Thus Spake Sid Harth
sidharthspeaketh.com/page/4/Aug 13, 2011 – Jun 11, 2011 – Free Speech, American Ishtail: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Posted on 11/06/2011 by Sid Harth Saturday, …
- WSJ
- MarketWatch
- Barrons
- SmartMoney
- All Things Digital
- Financial Jobs
- More
Hot Topics
- Jaipur Literature Festival
- Bollywood
- Food
- Books
- Art
- Delhi
- Mumbai
- Film Reviews
- February 17, 2012, 12:53 PM IST
Delhi Journal: From Slum to Skyscraper
Email
Print
By Tripti Lahiri
- Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- A general view of a slum in New Delhi.
Late last year, Raheja Developers Ltd. announced plans to build the city’s first skyscraper in West Delhi. According to a statement from the firm, it would work with Dubai-based Arabtec Construction LLC to build a 54-floor tower “with skyclub and helipad.” Arabtec constructed the emirate’s 2,716-foot Burj Khalifa.
The West Delhi building will have roughly 170 premium apartments, according to Navin Raheja, the Indian firm’s chairman. He could not provide exact figures for apartment size but said they would certainly be larger than 1,000 square feet each. The building won’t actually be called Raheja Phoenix, as the earlier statement said. “I never use English names,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday. Instead, the building will be called Raheja Minar.
Once construction starts, it can be completed in two years, said Mr. Raheja.
But when will the construction clock actually start ticking? It’s already more than two years behind schedule.
- Karim Sahib/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- A view of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower.
The entire redevelopment is likely to cost three to four billion rupees ($60 million to $80 million), he said.
In 2009, the DDA prepared a schedule of construction work that said building at Kathputli would begin in June that year and be completed in June last year. A neighborhood door-to-door survey, which includes recording a video of each family standing in front of their existing house, is nearly complete. But as of this month, there was no sign that construction is beginning anytime soon.
Mr. Raheja says he can’t begin work until the residents have been moved into transit camps that he is supposed to build, and for which the DDA has yet to provide him sufficient land. Kathputli colony residents say they won’t move until the DDA provides them a list of all the families who are eligible for free flats and promises in writing to return all of them to this site once construction is completed.
Mr. Raheja says that the first site offered for a temporary transit camp for Kathputli residents was embroiled in legal issues, while at two other proposed sites he faced local political opposition. Local residents and their representatives did not want to have the transit camp nearby, and objected to the DDA.
“Nobody wants poor people to be their neighbor,” said Mr. Raheja.
A fourth site that the DDA has offered is only big enough to house 800 families, not the 2,800 families he needs to build temporary shelter for, he said.
The impasse this project is facing, and the delay so far, aren’t at all unusual for the city. According to a report from real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India, as many as 63 real estate projects around Delhi that were supposed to supply 40,000 units of housing are four years behind schedule for reasons that range from lack of capital to “socio-political reasons.”
The performers of Kathputli — a popular stop in the city for foreign journalists and amateur photographers — have been here at least 40 years, and it may well have been the inspiration for the “magician’s ghetto” in Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”. After four decades of negotiations for legal rights to this area or to get resettled in a centrally located neighborhood, and after weathering at least one demolition of their homes in the 1970s, it’s understandable that they’re a little suspicious of this latest venture.
Since they work for themselves, they depend on being in the center of the city in order to find out quickly about jobs like weddings and birthday parties, which is why they say they have said no over the years to moving to sites that are further away.
Dilip Bhatt, the president of the main puppeteers’ association here, said that over a year ago his group had filed a Right-to-Information request seeking answers to their two key questions about the redevelopment, as well as several others. But they haven’t got the information they want yet, said the 60-year-old.
He said families were worried that once they moved to the transit camps, the DDA might pull a bait-and-switch, asking them to live there permanently.
- Tripti Lahiri/The Wall Street Journal
- Pictured, residents of the Kathputli colony.
“What is this? What will be in it? It doesn’t look like it’s for us,” he said. “If this is here, who will let us come back here?”
The DDA did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Raheja says he plans to persevere with the skyscraper project, and said he hoped city authorities would be more steadfast in overcoming opposition to the transit camps.
But the experience so far raises some questions over how successful this mixed-development will be if it ever does get built. If Delhi residents don’t want to accept Kathputli residents as their neighbors temporarily, won’t a luxury skyscraper surrounded by low-income housing towers face similar problems?
“I am building it,” said Mr. Raheja, ” I’ll have to face the consequences.”
You can follow India Real Time @indiarealtime.
- « previous
Did Police Trawl Gaming Site for Sticky Bomb Info? - next »
Rekindling the Love for Comic Books
Add a Comment
About India Real Time
- India
Real Time offers quick analysis and insights into the broad range of
developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture,
sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the
world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and
Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take
on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and
why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been
talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime@wsj.com or follow India Real Time on Twitter and Facebook.Check out the main contributors to the blog and their bios here.
- India Real Time on Twitter
- India Real Time on Facebook
Most Recent
MORE JOBS AND CAREER NEWS
- back to top
Customer Center:
Create an Account:
- Register for Limited Access
- Subscribe to WSJ.com
- Sign up for WSJ Professional
- Subscribe to WSJ Weekend - Print Edition
Help & Information Center:
About:
WSJ.com:
Tools & Formats:
Digital Network- WSJ.com
- Marketwatch.com
- Barrons.com
- SmartMoney.com
- AllThingsD.com
- FINS: Finance, IT jobs, Sales jobs
- BigCharts.com
- Virtual Stock Exchange
- WSJ Radio
- Professor Journal
- WSJ U.S. Edition
- WSJ Asia Edition
- WSJ Europe Edition
- WSJ India Page
Foreign language editions:
- WSJ Chinese
- WSJ Japanese
- WSJ Portuguese
- WSJ Spanish
- WSJ Deutschland
ACAP Enabled Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
0 comments:
Post a Comment