Construction of New Delhi

The construction of New Delhi refers to the development of Delhi into the capital of the British Raj, and creation of New Delhi in a mass-scale real estate development project before the Independence of India.[1][2][3] Before the project, Delhi was known of as a large slum due to the unplanned settlements of Old Delhi or Shahjahanabad.[1] The British proposed the project after the Delhi Durbar in 1911, although due to World War I, it was delayed by around ten years till the 1920s. The New Delhi Project continued till the 1940s.[4]

Originally King George V and Queen Mary announced the project, although it did receive major opposition from the European business community of Calcutta, along with Lord Curzon and Mahatma Gandhi.[3] The project was fulfilled by a team of architects, engineers and contractors, namely Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Herbert Baker, Sir Teja Singh Malik, Walter Sykes George, Robert Tor Russell, Arthur Shoosmith, Sir Sobha Singh, Basakha Singh, Ram Singh Kabli, Narain Singh and Dharam Singh Sethi.[5][6]

  1. ^ a b Singh, Khushwant (2003). Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-302957-1.
  2. ^ Dayal, Mala (2010). Celebrating Delhi. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-670-08482-1.
  3. ^ a b Singh, Khushwant (1990). Delhi. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-012619-8.
  4. ^ Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian (2013-05-23). Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-61069-248-9.
  5. ^ "Team of 5, and some more, who built New Delhi". The Indian Express. 2022-04-03. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
  6. ^ Khushwant Singh (26 September 2011). "Give the builders of New Delhi their due". Hindustan Times.