[Sample] Chandni Chowk Heritage Precinct Revitalisation

Restoring the Spine of Shahjahanabad

Chandni Chowk, the principal east–west axis of Shahjahanabad laid out by Shah Jahan in 1648, had by the early 2000s become one of Delhi's most congested and contested streets — 35,000 vehicles a day sharing a 30 m right-of-way with 450,000 pedestrians. The revitalisation project, completed in 2021 after three years of complex phased construction, removed all private motorised traffic and restored the street to a pedestrian and cycle-rickshaw-only corridor.

The design reinstated the 470 m central garden in the former Nahr-i-Bihisht (Stream of Paradise) canal bed, paved in Kota stone with heritage lamps and a rhythmic planting of kachnar trees. All utility infrastructure — electrical, water, drainage — was relocated below grade to clear the street of the tangle of overhead cables that had accumulated over a century.

“When Chandni Chowk opened to pedestrians in February 2021, people walked the full length for the first time in living memory. The city had been given a room back.”

— Project Commissioner, SRDC

The project has since received national recognition and inspired similar heritage-street interventions in Varanasi, Mathura, and Ujjain. Footfall counts post-completion recorded a 38% increase in pedestrian visitors and a 22% increase in commercial activity within 100 m of the corridor.