On Sunday afternoon, the wide avenues of central Delhi were deserted. But there was a hub of activity near the majestic India Gate. A smal...
On Sunday afternoon, the wide avenues of central Delhi were deserted. But there was a hub of activity near the majestic India Gate.
A small contingent of workers was busy digging a trench next to a tree-lined pond. A young man lifted soil in a wide bowl on this head, which he carried to the side, where two others helped him unload.
“The work here will not stop,” remarked the young worker, a 28-year-old from Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh, sweat dripping down his masked-up face.
For ten days now, India’s capital has been under lockdown, with its health system collapsing in the face of a wall of coronavirus cases. At least 2,267 people have died of Covid-19 in the past week – and this is just a fraction of the deaths since many are going uncounted. Day after day, families frantically look for hospital beds, which have run out, and hospitals, on their part, send SOS messages to the government about oxygen shortages which in some cases have led to deaths.
Amidst this devastation, one project remains unaffected: the Central Vista project.
A pet project of the Narendra Modi government, it aims to redevelop a 3.2-km stretch called the Central Vista that lies at the heart of Lutyens Delhi built by...
