Delhi

Public Transport

Three phases of Delhi’s excellent underground metro are now in operation: Shahdara-Rithala, Vishwa Vidalaya-Central Secretariat, and Dwarka-Barakambha Road. The remaining phases are expected to be completed by around 2010. The system is technologically very advanced: fare collection, for example, is done using ‘smart’ cards and tokens. The metro is expected to reduce the dependence of Delhi’s population on the car, reduce average commuting times by three-quarters and significantly cut pollution. 

There are also several schemes underway to improve the flow of traffic in the city, the most significant of which is the construction of flyovers. Around a dozen flyovers have now been completed, while several dozen others are at various stages of the planning process. However, Delhi remains addicted to the car (the number of vehicles registered in the city is a staggering 1.3 million and forecast to increase by around 7 to 8% per annum) and congestion, noise and pollution are an ongoing problem.

There are public buses in Delhi (all now converted to CNG or compressed natural gas), although finding a seat on the mostly decrepit vehicles is quite an undertaking due to the sheer number of passengers. The Delhi Transport Corporation (tel: (011) 2386 5181; website: http://dtc.nic.in) operates a centralised bus network which covers numerous routes within Delhi as well as interstate routes. Within Delhi, there are more than 700 routes serviced by over 3,000 buses. DTC also runs daily morning and afternoon sightseeing tours which take in the principal attractions of the city (see website for further information). There is a row of seats on the left of each bus reserved for women, although this rule is observed only on a whim.

The easiest way to get around the city is by taxi or auto-rickshaw (see below). Over recent years, the government, in an attempt to tackle the city’s air pollution, has forced taxis and auto-rickshaws to convert from petrol to CNG. This has made a statistical impact (Delhi has now moved below Mumbai and Kolkata (Calcutta) in the list of India’s most polluted cities) and the areas around even the busiest roads do now feel less polluted.

Rickshaws

Auto-rickshaws are open-sided, motorised tricycles, which weave in and out of Delhi’s thick traffic and can be stopped pretty much anywhere in the city. Visitors should be prepared for an uncomfortable ride as they lurch over the bumps and potholes of Delhi’s roads, at the same level as the exhaust pipes of most lorries and buses. Four- and six-seater motorcycle rickshaws are also available, which run fixed routes at fixed prices, including the route between the Red Fort (Old Delhi) and Palika Bazaar at Connaught Place. In Old Delhi, bicycle rickshaws are useful for short distances, although the government is planning to phase them out by 2010 in a bid to solve escalating congestion problems. Fares should always be negotiated at the start of the journey. Tipping is optional but especially encouraged for bicycle rickshaw drivers; 10% of the fare is the usual starting point.

Taxis

Yellow and black Ambassador taxis are readily available, especially at local taxi stands, where taxis can be booked and prices fixed in advance. Taxis can also be booked through hotels. Drivers do not usually expect tips unless they have gone to some trouble on their passenger’s behalf. There is a 25% surcharge between 2300 and 0500. Like auto-rickshaws, there are official rates for taxis but metered prices are generally subject to high surcharges and are at least twice as expensive as auto-rickshaws. Fares should be negotiated at the start of the journey as even those taxis that have meters can be misleading.

Driving in the City

Driving in Delhi takes a certain degree of steeliness. The broad boulevards of New Delhi pose few potential hazards. However, negotiating the vehicular chaos that is Old Delhi can test the skills of the most able driver, as bicycles and rickshaws career through the choking traffic of buses, trucks and cars, not to mention ox carts, lone wandering cows, goats and even the occasional elephant. Road travel is also subject to the vagaries of VIPs, of which India has an astonishing number, with roads frequently closed for ‘VIP movement’. Night driving can be particularly dangerous, with streets and cars lit only sporadically. Car parks are few and far between and, in general, driving oneself around the city is not recommended.

Car Hire

Service providers include Avis (tel: (011) 5539 7112; website: www.avis.com), located at the Oberoi Hotel and Hertz (tel: (011) 2412 1496; website: www.hertz.com) at Chankyapuri. Most major hotels can also arrange car hire on the visitor’s behalf. An International Driving Permit is essential for driving in India and in most cases the driver must be 25 years or over. Third party insurance is required by law.

Bicycle Hire

Cycling in New Delhi can take some courage but it is a good way of getting around the wide boulevards, which are fairly uncrowded and in relatively good condition. Bicycle hire in Delhi is surprisingly hard to come by - ask at your hotel, or at the Jhandewalan Cycle Market which is located several kilometres northwest of Paharganj.

Lovers of vintage motorcycles come to India to indulge a penchant for its locally built Enfields. The reputable Inder Motors, on Hari Singh Nalwa Street in Karol Bagh (tel: (011) 2572 8579; website: www.lallisingh.com), has new and second-hand Enfields for hire and sale.

Introduction

The premier performing arts institute is Sangeet Natak Akademi, Firoz Shah Road (tel: (011) 2338 7246; website: www.sangeetnatak.com), while the arts complex of Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Marg (tel: (011) 2371 8833), contains two galleries devoted to fine art and an open-air and an indoor theatre, as well as a sculpture park.

Among the ranks of Delhi’s ’chatterati’, the India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg (tel: (011) 2461 9431; website: www.iicdelhi.nic.in), is a political icon and post-independence institution. It is the capital’s premier cultural centre and organises seminars, lectures, music and dance recitals, as well as screening films on all aspects of Indian culture and environment. Nearby is the huge India Habitat Centre, junction of Lodhi Road and Max Mueller Marg (tel: (011) 2468 2001-9; website: www.indiahabitat.org), which offers a lively and interesting programme of drama and lectures.

Most of the cultural centres host concerts and exhibitions, as well as screening films in English or their native language. These include, on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, the German cultural centre Max Mueller Bhavan (tel: (011) 2332 9506; website: www.goethe.de/su/ned/enindex.htm), the British Council (tel: (011) 2371 1401; website: www.britishcouncil.org/india), and the American Library (tel: (011) 2331 4251; website: http://americanlibrary.in.library.net). The Alliance Française (tel: (011) 4350 0200; website: www.afdelhi.org) is at 72 Lodhi Estate.

Local newspapers including Hindustan Times (website: www.hindustantimes.com) and The Times of India (website: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com) carry daily and weekly listings of all events and should be the reference point for anyone interested in sampling the rich cultural life of Delhi. First City, Delhi City Guide and Delhi Diary magazines also carry listings.

Music: Delhi’s concert halls tend to be busy more or less year round, with the Delhi Symphony Orchestra performing at various venues such as the Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg (tel: (011) 2338 8084) and the FICCI Auditorium, Tansen Marg (tel: (011) 2371 9470). Hindustani music is by far the most popular, but Delhiites also have a keen interest in international music. Some of Delhi’s open-air venues, such as the majestically lit Qutb Minar (see Key Attractions), provide a dramatic backdrop for select performances. The Delhi Music Society (tel: (011) 2611 5331) is based at 8 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri.

Theatre: Delhi is well provided with innovative theatres and the area just to the north of India Gate is home to a number of these, including the Kamani Auditorium (see Music above). The Abhimanch, Bahawalpur House, Bhagwan Das Road (tel: (011) 2338 9402), stages a scintillating programme of theatre, dance and films through the year.

Dance: Lovers of dance are well catered for in Delhi, seeing as a rich mix of classical (including Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Kathakali), folk and tribal dance, as well as ballet, are performed at various auditoria throughout the year. The India International Centre and Triveni Theatre (see above) are both popular venues for regular, professional dance shows.

Film: Cinema is by far the most popular form of entertainment in India. The glitzy love stories and action movies of Bollywood attract massive audiences and their stars are national icons. There are any number of cinemas in Delhi, some showing only films in Hindi, some only in English and some in both languages. English-language films are shown, among many others, at the PVR Priya Cinema , Basant Lok Complex, Vasant Vihar (tel: (011) 98107 08625; website: www.pvrcinemas.com), and the PVR Plaza Cinema, H-Block, Connaught Place (tel: (011) 4151 6787; website: www.pvrcinemas.com). Local newspapers provide session details.

Literary Notes: The delights of Delhi have been dissected, eulogised and disputed over the generations, by a whole canon of writers. William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns (1994), the fruit of a year spent in Delhi, is a luminous and penetrative combination of history, observation and anecdote. A meaty slice of Indian life viewed from the inside is Vikram Seth’s epic A Suitable Boy (1993), which follows the lives of four extended families set against the political landscape in a newly independent northern India, in the 1950s.

Anita Desai, who was educated in Delhi, also focuses on the time of partition in her first published novel, Clear Light of Day (1980), which traces the interweaving, departures and reconciliation of the Das family of Old Delhi. Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi (1940) gives a pungent whiff of life in early-20th-century Delhi. Through Ali’s wistful eyes, the reader glimpses the rhythms and rituals of Islamic life in the city, before the construction of New Delhi, a world that was destroyed forever by partition.

One of the most prominent of Indian writers today, Keralan-born Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker Prize with God of Small Things (1997), studied and lives in Delhi. Those interested in the history of India’s progress to independence and beyond should search out a copy of Durga Das’s India: From Curzon to Nehru (1969). It is a most absorbing book, written by someone (a Delhi man to the core) who was himself on stage as these momentous events unfolded over a period of 50 years.

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