Mother Teresa Crescent Marg

New Delhi

Overview

Mother Teresa Crescent Marg is one of the important roads of Lutyens Delhi and the prime reason why this is so is that it just seats behind the Rashtrapati Bhawan Estate. The complete Rashtrapati Bhavan is accessed from this particular road. Mother Teresa Crescent Marg lies on the west of the Presidential estate that caters to the entrance-ways of the President's house. Also, the road serves as the home for national headquarters of various departments and therefore is probably one of the most significant roads in the entire region. Formerly it was known as Wellington Crescent Marg and it plays a key role from the connecting point of view as it runs from the North Avenue to South Avenue taking a semi-circular route. On the other side of the estate are the forest areas. It is very important from the traffic connectivity point as it experiences heavy Delhi traffic on a daily basis commuting from the north side of Rajpath to the southern side.

Concept

The streetscaping project’s base case was to develop this road keeping in mind the traffic flow, creating an ambience within the road itself while driving and maintaining the legacy while entering the Bhavan, to understand the mixed nature of traffic of joggers, commuters, two wheelers, four wheelers,high profile dignitary cars, presidential guard horses. One of the challenges was that various kinds of footfalls need to be taken care of while designing. Over and above a statement needed to be created out of the road itself. It has to be like a small city road where the cables, communications system, the drainage system has been taken care in a robust manner.

Design

The stretch lays special emphasis on catering the various kind of footfalls, pedestrian relief point and sit outs. Also, extensive work was done to place the pedestrians away from the traffic by a green buffer zone, creating pockets for resting places and horse paths were constructed. A lot of studies was also done inside the presidential estate to bring that same characters out in the road.

Street section detailing takes care of all the infrastructure lines like communications systems, drainage systems and are placed in such a position so as to provide easy and non-destructive repair works while projecting a robust nature of the same. The aims were high with a promise that there will be no diggings with the laying of hatches, conduits, etc. The water should be completely drained, fully harvested with self cleaning pits which require no / low maintenance. The design incorporated all of the above services.

A detailed study was done on the president’s house characteristics and the same is amalgamated in the design of the road to bring out the Lutyens viceroy character which is not evident in any part of the city.

Two sides of the stretch which are 3.5 km long, changes in character with local diffusion influenced by exits from the presidential estate. It gives a sense of variation not only to the motorists but also to the pedestrians thus blending the uniqueness of Lutyens Delhi to make it stand out from the rest of the city

Key features

The task was to design the streetscape and an urban corridor that caters to locals and those employed in the government services across the Marg.
Design upholds Imperial character of the Marg's eastern side with a contrast of contemporary landscape elements on the other.
Special emphasis on pedestrian relief points and sit outs.
Infrastructure lines designed to provide easy and non-destructive repair works.