NEW DELHI: Over the past 18 months, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has initiated the redevelopment of three major parks in the Walled City area, alongside Mahatma Gandhi Marg. Kranti Udyan, a 10-acre park, was inaugurated in January, this year.
Sadbhavana Park, an 11-acre formal garden, was opened on June 11 by L-G VK Saxena and CM Rekha Gupta, and a Mughal style revamp of four smaller green pockets around the Red Fort initiated in early 2024.
The new developments offer walkers and fitness enthusiasts wide promenades, formal lawns, amphitheatres, gym nodes and open air spaces. “This garden will provide much needed open recreational avenues in Delhi, especially to the people of Daryaganj and Old Delhi areas,” noted a DDA official at the Sadbhavana Park launch. L-G Saxena echoed this, promising Delhi “clean, open areas,” predicting that within five years, “Delhi will be so beautiful everyone will praise the decisions taken”.
Local residents, however, have mixed feelings. “The marble pathways and fountains are beautiful, but it all feels too formal,” said Kishore, a morning walker in Kranti Udyan. “There’s hardly any space left for kids to run around or play cricket.” There are also concerns that an entry fee, already being charged, risks excluding families with humble backgroud from regular access.
Critics point to the excessive use of concrete and ornamental stone in landscaping. While the parks include low maintenance plantations, they fall short of the rich, unstructured greenery and trees found in older Delhi parks. “The old parks may have been scruffy, but they were open to everyone, no entry fee, no restricted lawns,” said Daryaganj resident Aparna Singh.
“Children freely played ball games before; now with formal lawns and kiosks, there’s no place to kick a football.”
Accessibility remains a sticking point: the older parks lacked parking and mechanisms enforcing decorum, but were open 24x7, with entry always free. Now, with ticketing at Kranti Udyan and designed entrances in the heritage zone redevelopments, the spaces are less inclusive. “For us, this feels like a playground for the middle class,” added a local shopkeeper in Urdu Bazaar.