Latest revision as of 22:43, 16 March 2024

[edit] History

[edit] Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar, refugee colonies

[edit] 1947- 2023

Rishika Singh, June 30, 2023: The Indian Express

Professor Amar Farooqui, who used to teach History at Delhi University, says that around the 19th Century, Delhi’s suburbs began coming up in its west, in places like Paharganj. “Towards the end of the century, Karol Bagh came up. It’s a relatively older settlement unlike Rajinder Nagar, which is a proper Partition settlement colony,” he says.

Karol Bagh had a fairly large Muslim population in the pre-Partition period, he says, and it was a relatively affluent suburb. A few educational institutes like Tibbia college (a 19th-Century Ayurvedic and Unani college) and later, the Khalsa College was established here over time.

Among refugees, the slightly better-off settlers such as the Sindhis made this area their home. There was also a significant South Indian population too, particularly of Tamilians, Farooqui notes, with the establishment of Delhi as the British capital in 1911.

Rajinder Nagar was one of the more planned colonies, he says, with the more affluent refugees getting 54 sq-yard plots from the government in the 1950s.

Dr Rana Behal, former professor of History at DU’s Deshbandhu College, lived in the nearby area and came from Amritsar in 1965. He says, “Many new colonies in Delhi emerged initially as part of the settlement of displaced people who came from West Punjab. Slowly, they began to urbanise. Karol Bagh was a hub of new kinds of markets in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rajinder Nagar was essentially a residential colony, where the newly arrived middle-class began to emerge as a more literate class than earlier, attending schools and colleges.”

The transition

Coaching institutes here came along much later. Dr Behal believes the liberation of the Indian economy in 1991 also had a role to play, with growing personal incomes allowing more people to afford fees for institutes.

One of the earliest entrants in the UPSC sector here was Vajiram and Ravi, whose lone centre in Delhi is in Old Rajinder Nagar.

Elangovan Rajalingam, head of administration at Vajiram and Ravi, who has been associated with the institute for over 30 years, says that initially, the institute was situated close to the nearby Ajmal Khan Road but shifted to its current location in 1997 as that area became congested. “We were the first people in Rajinder Nagar (to come up with such an institute)… we thought we could go for this good, residential area compared to a commercial area,” he says.

Before this, Ber Sarai in South Delhi, near JNU, and DU’s North Campus area were the centres for UPSC preparation, says Rajalingam.

On how UPSC preparation has permeated all aspects of life in Rajinder Nagar and Karol Bagh, he remarks, “If you meet one bookshop owner, he knows more than the aspirant!”

Meanwhile, the coaching hub boom has had a ripple effect on the areas’ economy. Rajalingam says the rent for a PG room, which used to be Rs 5,000 just a decade ago, is now close to Rs 20,000. Fees of coaching institutes have also spiralled, with some even charging Rs 1.5 lakh a year.

One of the businesses that seems to have benefitted the most is that of photo-copying. Bhagwaan Singh, owner of Indian Copier Systems at Karol Bagh, who set up his shop in 2013, says his rent has shot up from Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 1 lakh over the years.

“The transformation only happened when coaching institutes came up. Before that, there was nothing like this… not even markets, it was mostly a residential colony… Now nearly all of it is developed, both old and new Rajinder Nagar,” he adds.

The development also attracted businessmen from other places. One such trader is Vishwadeep Parashar, owner of Tirupathi Book Centre, who has been in Karol Bagh since 2011.

It was not business which brought Parashar to the city, though. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, he came to Delhi for college and then stayed back to give the exam. He set up a photocopying business and later started dealing in books. “Around that time, shops for exam-related books were rare, but there was a supply of study material from Ber Sarai to Central Delhi. This made me realise a new market was coming up,” he says. The advent of Delhi Metro to the area in the mid-2000s also contributed to its growing popularity.

For students such as Harshitha, an engineering graduate from Karnataka, the expense is worth it. Staying here since her course began in June 2022, she says, “This area is full of students and the environment is all about UPSC preparation. It’s quite convenient for us… We come, complete the coaching and then decide if we want to continue staying here.”

Moreover, Delhi’s popularity in terms of UPSC coaching has further increased with the number of recent exam toppers being from the city. Referring to Tina Dabi, who topped the 2015 exam, Sakshi Bharadwaj, manager at Vision IAS in Karol Bagh, says, “I think this area majorly developed after people like Dabi, who belongs to Delhi, did well.”

She adds that her institute sees a greater inflow of people from states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the South.

The online shift

After Covid-19 struck, many institutes have shifted to online or hybrid methods of coaching.

The economy adapted too. Singh’s photocopy business, for example, started online delivery via e-commerce services. But that model does not always work. “Online is not better at all, we have to pay more for pick-ups and sometimes customers read books and return them within seven days,” he says.

Rajalingam believes that overall, benefits are reaching students from across communities thanks to online coaching. “It’s a good thing for those with jobs, students in colleges for whom attendance is a must, and for women as their parents might not be ready to send them to other states.” But still, he adds, 80% of people opt for offline classes.

And what happens to those who don’t clear the exam? Parashar says over time, students get to know about other government exams, like one for the Combined Defence Services Examination conducted by UPSC for military positions. The subjects are fundamentally the same and only the level of difficulty changes, he says.

“No one is a failure. It’s a big exam, and one among a million students make the cut,” he adds.

[edit] Ajmal Khan Park

[edit] Heritage Park

[edit] 2024

Vibha Sharma, March 9, 2024: The Times of India

Located on a 4.5-acre section of Ajmal Khan Park, the place has replicas of 20 Indian monuments recognised as World Heritage Sites by Unesco
From: Vibha Sharma, March 9, 2024: The Times of India

New Delhi: A fifth waste-to-art park is in the offing. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will open the Heritage Park in congested Karol Bagh next month. Located on a 4.5-acre section of Ajmal Khan Park, the place has replicas of 20 Indian monuments recognised as World Heritage Sites by Unesco.


Among the monuments created from scrap material will be five heritage wheels (chakras) from temples constructed in different historical eras, such as the one from the Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha and the 16th century Hampi wheel from Karnataka.


The entrance to this park comprises a 30ft-tall and 40ft-wide replica of Teen Darwaza, the monumental gateway constructed in 1415 on the east of Bhadra Fort in Ahmedabad. In close proximity to the gate is the replica of the ruins of the Vishnu Temple in Eran, Madhya Pradesh. The historically significant temple is located on the southern bank of River Bina.


The other temples and monuments recreated from waste material are the Shore temple of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, Mahishasuramardhini Mandapa also in Tamil Nadu, Durga temp- le in Karnataka’s Aihol, Amer Fort in Rajasthan, Santiniketan in West Bengal, Red Fort of Delhi), Champaner in Gujarat, the Red Fort of Agra, Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar, Bhimbetka Caves in MP, Brihadeshwara Temple in Tamil Nadu, Elephanta Cave off Mumbai and Kakatiya Rudreshwara temple in Telangana. The MCD project, built at a cost of Rs 4 granted by MP Meenakshi Lekhi and inaugurated last week, is almost ready for the public with most of the tasks completed and only the electricity work under way.


“Each sculpture is installed at the right distance and at different heights to give visitors enough time and space to view them. To add to the atmosphere, we have planted flowering and exotic plants of different heights and shapes. There are plaques in front of each three dimensional sculpture that gives information on the original monuments,” said an MCD official. “Aesthetic lighting, designed in heritage style, have also been installed to highlight the sculptures and to illuminate the common areas.”


One of the attractions of the ticketed Heritage Park is the waterbody-cum-fountain. “There used to be a fountain here earlier but it was lying defunct,” another civic official explained. “We have revived it and developed it into a huge area with an ample sitting arrangement for park visitors. The spot is very well lit and catches the eye. It is surrounded by at least five sculptures and there are steps from the fountain leading to those sculptures.”

[edit] Civic issues

[edit] 2017

Paras Singh, Karol Bagh voters yearn for toe space, April 18, 2017: The Times of India

Karol Bagh, Delhi: Some facts; Paras Singh, Karol Bagh voters yearn for toe space, April 18, 2017: The Times of India

Many would perhaps envy the three municipal wards of Karol Bagh assembly constituency for their commercial viability . They are after all home to popular commercial nerve centres like Ajmal Khan Road for general shopping, Ghaffar Market for electronics and Paharganj for its conglomerate of affordable hotels. The reality for residents is that all these contribute to the area's almost insurmountable problem: congestion.

For the voters in the three North Delhi Municipal Corporation wards of Paharganj, Karol Bagh and Dev Nagar, almost all issues that require attention are related to congestion arising from vehicular presence, illegal parking, encroachments and proliferation of street vendors. Residents admit there are problems with sanitation and stray dogs, but these appear tame in the context of congestion. “It is almost impossible even to drive our children to school,“ said Shobha at Multani Dhanda in Paharganj.

Motia Khan businessman Sadanand Vaish blames no one in particular for the mess. “Residents and shopkeepers indulge in encroachment, even as the local populace is increasingly turning homes into hotels and shops.These are choking the area to death.“ Vaish's woes are supplemented by the corporation's decade-long failure to complete the Rani Jhansi Road flyover and Shastri Park multilevel parking, both of which could have eased the vehicle load from the area.

“Yes, we agree that tenders for the Shastri Park multilevel parking project have been floated multiple times, but contractors refuse to participate because of the poor financial status of the north corporation,“ conceded Yogender Chandolia, former mayor and councillor from Dev Nagar. “Even the publicprivate participation mode didn't interest anyone.“

There is a large SC population in the area -Dev Nagar, for instance, has more than 44,000 SCs among its 64,000 residents -and Chandolia blames Delhi government for depriving many of the benefits of its many SC welfare schemes, especially women and widows. But there is no escaping that the corporation it self hasn't done much to deal with the pressing problems.Chandolia identified water and congestion as the wards' twin bugbears. “Water doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the corporation,“ he argued, “and a councillor alone cannot do anything about congestion.Pedestrianisation, like the one being experimented with in Connaught Place, cannot be replicated here because the localities are mixed market-residential areas.“

Kamlesh Rana recalled how Dev Nagar was a peaceful locality 40 years ago, but had now become unsuitable for residential life due to a preponderance of commercial buildings and heavy vehi cles. In Paharganj, Anita Devi shuddered, “The public toilets are all overflowing and the stink is unbearable.“ Unforgivable perhaps for a place that attracts lodgers and shoppers in hordes.

Madhu Khurana, Congress candidate from Paharganj and sitting member, deflected the blame to the BJP led civic body . “Nothing has been done in the last five years,“ she alleged. “The Rani Jhansi Road flyover was started 15 years ago when I was a member of MCD, but has not been finished even now.“ Her party , she claimed, would come up with a comprehensive plan to make free the wards of congestion.

[edit] Development

[edit] 2019:  pedestrianisation of 1.7km

Paras Singh & Somreet Bhattacharya, May 2, 2019: The Times of India

Karol Bagh- the pedestrianisation of 1.7km
From: Paras Singh & Somreet Bhattacharya, May 2, 2019: The Times of India

Chandni Chowk-like promise to beat congestion takes shape at Karol Bagh

PILOT PROJECT: Shopping Hub Pedestrianised With A 1.7km Non-Motorised Zone

New Delhi:

Karol Bagh is among the capital’s top choices for shopping needs. But that is also the reason why this area is very congested. With thousands of shops, vehicles and lakhs of people jostling for space at the same time, shopping becomes a rough experience often. But now, that is set to change.

The north corporation on Tuesday began work to decongest Karol Bagh market area. For that, the central avenue of Ajmal Khan Road, starting from Pusa Road up to Arya Samaj Road, has been turned into a non-motorised vehicle zone with a green belt at the centre, dedicated NMV (nonmotorised vehicle) lanes, and pedestrian walkways on both sides. In other words, the area is being pedestrianised like the ongoing project to do the same at Chandni Chowk. However, it’s a pilot project for now. An official said that only pedestrian movement will be allowed on the central stretch with the provision of an NMV lane at the centre, which will have a six-lane opening at points near Tank Road intersection, Padam Singh Road intersection, Arya Samaj Road intersection and Hardhyan Singh Road.

PWD is expected to start upgrading six key streets by July 1. However, the corporation has already reserved spots for street furniture by placing large plant pots along with benches. A senior north corporation official said more street furniture would be installed. “In the first phase, the stretch from metro station to Arya Samaj Road is being covered while the arterial road from Arya Samaj Road to DB Gupta road will be covered in the second phase,” he said.

The civic body estimates that the first phase and trial would be over in 10 days.

The official also said that beautification and landscaping of the streets will be undertaken to turn the stretch into a pedestrian-friendly zone. “The UTTIPEC plan has dedicated provision of rickshaw lane in the centre and kerb-stone laid walkways lined with trees. The tree guards will have integrated sitting areas and provisions of shade for pedestrians using street furniture will also be made,” he added.

In a bid to regulate the vendors, designated vending spots will be fixed with the help of a town vending committee. Murali Mani who heads Ajmal Khan Road Vyapar Mandal said they will manage parking instead of private contractors as was done at Lajpat Nagar. “Our main concern was that the vendors and rehri-patri operators—the main cause of congestion—should be removed and north corporation has assured to relocate them,” Mani said.

Meanwhile, traffic police have converted the Saraswati and Gurdwara roads into one-way, no-parking stretches and have turned them into thoroughfares for rickshaws and e-rickshaws. Traffic DCP (central range) Rakesh Pawaria said the plan had been formulated in 2010 but couldn’t be implemented.

But market welfare associations said pedestrianisation of the area won’t work if parallel roads aren’t motorable. “Vehicles travelling on stretches like the Gurdwara Road that runs parallel to Ajmal Khan Road have to go all the way towards Pusa Road to take a U-turn. This also applies for emergency vehicles. The roads connecting the Saraswati Road and Gurdwara Road need to be decongested before implementing the circulatory plan,” said Sanjeev Kapur, general secretary of the vyapar mandal.

The municipal corporation has been asked to completely overhaul the parking management of the entire area. For this, four new parking lots will be made operational, adding to the current capacity of 1,955 slots.

“The lots will come up at Bhuli Bhatiyari Road behind Bhagga Link Road petrol pump (100 slots); north corporation land in Dev Nagar behind Liberty Cinema (100 slots); Bank Street (180 slots) and Ajmal Khan Park lawn number 3 (275 slots). “Additional 200 slots will be created at two more lots near Jhandewalan Mata Mandir and income tax department office in Jhandewalan Extension,” the senior corporation official said.

Shastri Park parking with the capacity of 300 vehicles has been handed over to traders. The traders’ association estimates that around 100 spots will be reserved for traders. Valet parking will be available at three locations on Padam Singh Road and Tank Road. Also, six e-rickshaws have been made available to ply at the market.

The plan says that all slots will be marked with parallel lines for obstruction-free movement, and all on-street parking will be divided into one side or two-side parking based on availability of space.