This report is part of a series on impunity for public space encroachments by the elite. Read the previous parts here.

“Please don’t walk on this,” a security guard in New Friends Colony told this reporter, pointing to what was once a public footpath outside a bungalow in Block C. The spot, now fenced with metal chains, had been converted into a reserved parking space. No longer for pedestrians.

Such encroachments are not the exception in New Friends Colony. They are the norm, in a city where thousands have been displaced – mostly from vulnerable sections – in demolition drives over the last four months.

This is despite a 2021-22 report by the Delhi government’s Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities warning about how barriers and encroachments – from squatters to parked cars – made the city unsafe and inaccessible. The 2019 DDA regulations on “enhancing walkability in Delhi” had flagged that 34 percent of all daily trips in the city were on foot. Additionally, in 2016, the Union Ministry of Urban Development report on decongesting traffic in Delhi recommended that encroachment of footpaths “should be made a cognisable offence under the Municipal Act”. 

But in New Friends Colony, one of the capital’s wealthiest addresses, little has changed. 

Barricaded footpaths, illegal driveways

Newslaundry visited over 20 homes in Block C and found not a single unbarricaded footpath. With hundreds of square feet, captured by orange traffic cones, flowerpots, and chained driveways. Entering Block B, a security guard noted down vehicle numbers and asked about the visit. Past the gate, footpaths were blocked by barricades, planters, or parked cars, forcing pedestrians onto the road. Block A was no different: footpaths tiled to match each home, driveways blended into the street, and parking marked with cones, pots, or chains.

It wasn’t just the lanes inside the gated blocks. Even the main road opposite the Taimoor Nagar DDA flats was occupied by illegally built driveways and makeshift barricades.

Reshma, a domestic worker who’s been employed in the colony for three years, summed it up: “I have never seen a spot in the colony where there isn’t a car, or the space isn’t marked with cones or chains.”

The colony, developed by a housing society in the 1970s on land acquired from Gujjar villagers, now has around 1,300 homes across four blocks hosting lawyers, politicians, and businessmen. One house, belonging to a Delhi High Court advocate, had a glinting metal barricade in front of it, with two cars blocking the footpath. It was just one among many.

Ironically, just two months ago, on May 5, the adjacent Taimoor Nagar slum saw a demolition drive – a result of a petition filed by a cooperative housing society from neighbouring Maharani Bagh, citing the need to desilt a drain.

A member of that same society, when asked about similar encroachments in New Friends Colony, said, “That’s different. We have to protect our space from outsiders parking here.”

This logic has translated into widespread barricading of footpaths. A logic that defies guidelines by the Indian Road Congress – the apex body of highway engineers aimed at road development. According to IRC, bollards can be installed to prevent parking, but must leave at least 1.8 metres clear for pedestrians. 

In 2022, a 2-km stretch of road in the colony leading to the Ashoka Park shrank to 1.5 lanes due to grills, flowerpots, and barricades. An RWA member recalled that a municipal drive to remove these encroachments was successful. “But it was just a day later when people brought out new pots, started barricading again and the situation was back to square one.”

‘Not in our hands’

According to the Delhi crash report for 2023, the New Friends Colony traffic circle recorded 11 fatal and 49 non-fatal crashes. But the police seem helpless in ensuring proper footpaths. 

A traffic police inspector who serves in the said circle said “it’s not in our hands”. “Inside the colony, we hardly get a call to remove illegal cars and since many people barricade to reserve the parking spot, we can’t do much about it.” 

Another resident of Block B said, “The problem with this colony is that firstly there are no footpaths, and wherever they exist, they are encroached upon. We, as residents, ask others not to barricade or park vehicles. But they reply with, ‘what are we supposed to do with our vehicles if we do not park them here?’.” 

The New Friends Colony is part of the Srinivaspuri municipal ward, whose councillor Rajpal Singh said that “sometimes people do re-encroach the land” but “when we get any complaints, MCD does take action” – the most recent one on June 27. “We carry out drives which are more or less awareness drives in the colony, to make people aware about the need for the footpath and remove encroachments.”

Newslaundry reached out to NFC Residents’ Welfare Association president Lal Singh for comment. This report will be updated if he responds.

Rahul Verma, assistant engineer in the MCD, said, “Complaints related to the encroachments do not directly reach the STF. The complaint is registered with the zonal office like Green Park for South Delhi and ultimately, they are the one only who do take any action related to encroachment.”   

Newslaundry reached out to DCP (South East) Hemant Tiwari, MCD South Additional Commissioner Jitender Yadav and Assistant Public Information Officer (Traffic/South East) Bhanu Pratap for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

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