[NEWS] Citing Pandemic, Artists Call for India to Halt Redevelopment of New Delhi


May 14, 2021  


Construction work underway as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, at Rajpath in New Delhi, Friday, May 7, 2021. 



An international group of artists, curators, scholars, and historians signed a statement calling for the government of India to put an immediate halt to its Central Vista redevelopment plan in New Delhi in light of the public health emergency the nation faces as Covid-19 surges there a second time, The Hindu reports. Of particular concern to the signatories is the scheduled demolition of the National Museum, the National Archives, and the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, and the attendant relocation of the treasures contained therein in a responsible fashion. 
1:1 luxury replica watches at affordable prices are all available!

Here, you can obtain the best genuine replica watches with high quality.

“There was a clear logic in the urban planning of Delhi to keeping these cultural, archival and historical centres in close proximity to each other,” contend the missive’s authors. “The National Museum, in particular, has historical value and requires renovation and augmentation, not demolition. The rushed destruction of these structures will cause irrevocable harm to world-renowned institutions that have been painstakingly built over decades.”





Rendering of the new Delhi parliament complex. Image: HCP Design, Planning and Management Ltd. 



Launched in 2019, the Central Vista redevelopment project aims to revamp India’s central administrative area, which is located near New Delhi’s Raisina Hill, home to the country’s most important government buildings. Groundbreaking for the $2.8 billion four-year plan, which includes the creation of a new common Central Secretariat housing all ministries, a new Parliament building, and new residences and offices for India’s vice president and prime minister, took place December 2020, just ahead of the pandemic.





The coronavirus’s second wave in India has been accompanied by packed 
hospital wards, oxygen shortages, and viral videos of purported cures.
Photograph by Parveen Kumar / Hindustan Times / Getty 



“It is especially troubling,” note the letter’s signatories, “that this extravagant project is moving ahead in the midst of a devastating pandemic, endangering workers, and squandering scarce resources that could be used to save lives.”

India to date has reported 23 million Covid-19 infections, accounting for one in five active infections worldwide, and a death toll of more than 250,000.





 


Prev [NEWS] In an Effort to Recoup Losses, Uffizi Sells Renaissance Masterpieces as NFTs
Next [FAIRS] London Original Print Fair
  List