Delhi cityscapes

[kshatriya]

Delhi-Noida Xpway

I wish that we had expressways like that connecting the whole country.

[ViMo]

Originally Posted by indian

I wish that we had expressways like that connecting the whole country.

The problem with xpressways is that they are exclusive. You pay toll and get access. This still leaves the vast majority of people outside. Also, once xpressways are financially successful, more and more xpressway projects comeup, while the ordinary roads get neglected. So, in effect, the vast majority of Indians will then remain disconnected and neglected. What, we in India need is good public roads and highways in general. Xpressways are successful only within the cities or in short distances like Mumbai-Pune, Bangalore-Mysore and so on...They are never a solution inplace of national highways

[aks]

[aks]

IIT Delhi Main Building:

[aks]

Delhi skyline (Repeated pic)



Connaught Place



CP Metro construction



Parliament






Metro

[aks]

[centralized pandemonium]

Delhi's skyline looks decent in the last pic.

[kshatriya]

After endless pics of cows, ganna juice sellers, fruit sellers, roadside barbers, PCO booths, beggars, and more cows; I found these -

Gurgaon







Delhi

Lotus Temple



Red Fort

[drwho]

btw,does anybody know about the construction project at Connaught Place? when is it finished?

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by drwho

btw,does anybody know about the construction project at Connaught Place? when is it finished?

Are you referring to Metro Rail?

[Suncity]

The capital of rampant consumption
November 20, 2004
Sunil Sethi

http://us.rediff.com/money/2004/nov/20guest1.htm

It is not quite midnight but the scene outside two deluxe hotels in Delhi earlier this week provides ample evidence that Delhi is on a fast-moving, fast-spending jamboree.

There are about a hundred guests milling about in the vast portico of each, either trying to get in or out, without the loss of a Fendi handbag or a Ferragamo shoe. The lineup of cars is six deep, many of them gleaming Mercedes or BMW, and stretches far down tree-lined drives out on to the main streets.

Inside, past gleaming plate glass doors, gone are the days of making a graceful, understated entry or exit. It is a scramble, as jostling hordes try to make their way to various points in the building. What is going on -- an international conference, a state visit, or a minister's son's wedding? Actually, it could be all the three. Delhi is just having another party. Night after night the scene is the same, with every hotel and restaurant packed like sardine cans.

The chattering classes are gorging themselves on delicacies such as quail in rich wine and raisin sauce, roistering under garden tables dripping with canopies of freshly-dyed orchids and thronging the bars with limitless supplies of liquor.

"Le Beaujolais noveau est arrive!" shouts one invitation this week -- and wouldn't you know that it's the third Thursday of November when the wine presses in distant France annually uncork their fresh harvest?

If you live in Delhi, the undisputed capital of conspicuous consumption, you can learn something every day. The newly-issued Good Food Guide to Delhi and its suburbs lists more than 1,500 restaurants and bars. It now comes accompanied by a separate Leisure and Nightclub Guide.

On average, the price per head at a lavish dinner party at a five-star hotel is Rs 2,000. Hotel waiters may complain that they have been kept from a good night's sleep for months but hotel managers say they have never had it so good.

"Our banquet halls and public spaces are booked solid till the end of March 2005," says a manager, all smiles. "And," he adds with relish, "profits from food and beverage now run neck-to-neck with guest occupancy rates and often outperform them."

"Chanel Opens Early 2005" reads the bold announcement in one hotel shopping arcade. Just think back how the shape and style of the Indian hotel corridor has changed. Rapidly disappearing are the little shops that peddled Kashmir shawls, Jaipur enamel, Moradabad brass, and Assam tea to tentative tourists to be replaced by wall-to-wall Louis Vuitton and Hugo Boss.

Ravi Thakran, regional managing director of LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate that owns a variety of brands from Christian Dior to Tag Heuer watches, has even classified the Indian consumer of luxury goods into four distinct categories: the connoisseur, the status-seeker, the young and fashionable, and the functionalist.

Old money, new money, funny money or even yummy money are, in fact, losing their social distinctions or purchasing power restrictions. Who after all would yearn for Nokia's new range of jewel-studded cellphones, priced between Rs 242,000 and Rs 371,000 a piece? Going by Thakran's classification, at least three of the four in his listed species could be willing to fork out.

As if on cue, Calvin Klein, the world's unchallenged "King of Knickers", arrived in the capital last week to set the designer world aflutter.

The 62-year-old, Bronx-born designer -- tall, reed-thin and with his lazy Uptown drawl intact -- who's built a Fortune 500 company in designing and marketing everything from couture to underwear, was generous enough to swap ideas with a group of leading names from the Indian fashion world. It was fascinating to be present at the small, informal interaction.

What could have been a knowledgeable, worldly and sharp exchange of ideas about design, marketing, brand-building and going global, turned out, in fact, to be a one-way street, with the Indian group venting a number of complaints -- from lack of capital to lack of backers among the fat cats of Indian industry.

Calvin Klein was sympathetic up to point. Their problems were no different, he said, from designers anywhere else in the world. He urged them to work harder to establish their niche markets and consolidate their brands.

India was too big and buoyant a market for them not to succeed. But when asked if the arrival of the Calvin Klein brand would squeeze them, he was blunt. "There's room for everybody. Choice is always good."

As competition warms up in the capital of conspicuous consumption, the customer simply can't have enough.

[drwho]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Are you referring to Metro Rail?

yeap.. aks posted this picture from CP-metro u/c but it is from sept 2003,..trying to find a picture that is from summer-2004 and to see how far the project has come

[Suncity]

I will see if I find any (doubtful).

Meanwhile here are some Delhi pics by Aman Ahuja.

DLF and Jeevan Bharati



Palika (NDMC), Park Hotel, DLF



Palika II (Have they commissioned this yet?)



Another pic of the skyline (when it comes to desi skyline pics, agencies tend to choose a cloudy day!)



Rajghat entry by Brent Vallat



Dandi March by Svenigalla



Amby on a Delhi Street



Pictures of Old Delhi are available in plenty..this one by sunflowerimaging. And notice how the sun shines bright here..

[aks]

Comment on Palika II building posted by Suncity:

This was supposed to be the New Delhi's tallest building during planning stage, guess approx 50+ floors or so but then many agencies raised objection that it's shadow will fall on Jantar Mantar.Jantar Mantar depends upon sun-light for its functioning. The height was curtailed but even then it was 20+ or so. But the picture posted here seems to be of even lesser height.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by aks

Comment on Palika II building posted by Suncity:

This was supposed to be the New Delhi's tallest building during planning stage, guess approx 50+ floors or so but then many agencies raised objection that it's shadow will fall on Jantar Mantar.Jantar Mantar depends upon sun-light for its functioning. The height was curtailed but even then it was 20+ or so. But the picture posted here seems to be of even lesser height.

Here's what I had read about it in this article dated Feb 7, 2004).

http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/08/stor...0806280400.htm

Then there is NDMC's another infamous project -- New Delhi City Centre (NDCC) Phase- II - that still awaits completion even after 10 years since its construction began. Conceived in 1992, the foundation stone of the 11-storey commercial project was laid way back on February 16, 1994 ,and was to be completed in four years at an estimated cost of Rs.61.60 crores.

But due to delay, the project's cost has kept on escalating and it is now likely to touch around Rs.100 crores. And that is not all. The undue delay has already cost the NDMC a revenue loss of Rs.125 crores as the new building was to fetch the Council Rs.25 crores as annual revenue.

And the lazy babus were still working on it in May 2004...though why on "temporary toilets" is a mystery to me

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (C-VI)

NDMC; CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

NDCC PHASE II ; SITE OFFICE

SANSAD MARG : NEW DELHI.

TENDER NOTICE

Executive Engineer (C-VI) invites on behalf of New Delhi Municipal Council sealed item rate tenders from approved and eligible class V contractors (holding valid registration certificate of approved class) of NDMC and those of appropriate class of CPWD/MES/Railways/P&T/DDA/MCD state PWD for work

Const. Of New Delhi City Centre Phase II

SH: C/o Temporary toilet at the site of NDCC Phase II for office use at an estimated cost of Rs.86,018.00 with a time of completion of 45 days. The contractors registered in other organizations shall get themselves registered in NDMC before they are paid first running bill. Earnest money of Rs.1720.00 must accompany the tender as specified in condition 8 of Notice Inviting Tender (Form 6).

Tender documents can be had by eligible contractors on production of duly receipted NDMC treasury challan of Rs.150/- each (non-refundable) between 11.00 A.M. to 2.00 P>M. on all working days between 5.5.2004 to 7.5.2004 from the office of undersigned or from the tender Issue Cell at Palika Kendra. The tenders will be received back in his office upto 4.00 P.M. on 11.5.2004 and opened at 4.30 P.M. on the same day.

[drwho]

hey great pictures Suncity!!

Palika II looks cool,,wonder how it will look in the night

[Suraj]

Very nice Delhi pics. Central/South Delhi is very photogenic, with unique buildings and wide avenues. The haze in those pictures is not mere cloudy weather but fog. Its the worst problem about photography in Delhi in winter, and it significantly affected my own ability to take good pictures last Dec/Jan. The air quality is fine these days - certainly nothing like the atrocious smog when I was there in the late 1990s. All those CNG-powered public transport vehicles certainly helped.

the country is experiencing great progress

[ViMo]

Originally Posted by aks

Comment on Palika II building posted by Suncity:

This was supposed to be the New Delhi's tallest building during planning stage, guess approx 50+ floors or so but then many agencies raised objection that it's shadow will fall on Jantar Mantar.Jantar Mantar depends upon sun-light for its functioning. The height was curtailed but even then it was 20+ or so. But the picture posted here seems to be of even lesser height.

Somehow I cannot forsee real tall buildings in either central or new delhi. Gurgaon is good for that! I mean look at the buildings: the designs are more artistic than "modern". Besides, skyscrapers look good in clusters, and Delhi doesn't have the space for these clusters. Then again, most offices have actually moved to South Delhi - so it makes more sense to have commercial towers in these parts of the Delhi. Let Central Delhi remain a shopper's and tourist's paradise!