Image Planning Tanya Chandra 4321391 Page 1 of 13 Paper abstract – What is the solution, when solution is the problem? Delhi is going through massive urban upgradation in terms of infrastructure and development for its attainment of ‘world-city’ title. Promoting high technological solutions for public transport, encouraging suburban gated communities served by cars and resettlement of urban poor at the periphery of the city, which form 55 percent of the population and depends extensively on non-motorized modes of transport. This urban re-configuration for ‘progress’ creates a socio-economic segregation and creates a bi-polar city. A city which gives priority to motorize based development and causes a peripheral push to those who cannot afford this type of urban development. Mobility is a tool for urban development and land-use pattern, therefore, it is also primary symptom of urban decay. Therefore, the paper studies the causes and symptoms of Delhi’s socio-spatial deterioration due to segregation between different economic groups which has been examined through their options of mobility. Key words – neo-liberal planning, politics of forgetting, congestion, infrastructure, urban image Introduction “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” - Streets are People Places, Fred Kent, 2005 Newton’s third law of motions defines mobility and function of a city. As, urban land-use transport models incorporate the most essential processes of spatial development in a city (Wegener, 2004). The urban fabric contains land-use patterns and infrastructure network which evolve slowly with time. Where on one hand workplaces and housing follow a similar pace of change but on another hand employment and residential population adapt their spatial behaviour with the changing times far rapidly. This process in Delhi is interpreted through one criteria - economics. “Capitalist development must negotiate a knife-edge path between preserving the values of past commitments made at a particular place and time, or devaluing them to open up fresh room for accumulation.”– (Harvey, 1985, p150). But, as Reinier de Graaf points out in the “The smart city is not so smart”, Design Middle East that contemporary urban planning operates on artificial ‘tabula rasa’, where ‘If you plan a city for cars, you will get a bi-polar city of people and machine’ The growing image building and car culture planning in Delhi for ‘world-city’ title; interpreted through transport planning. Tanya Chandra 4321391 / tanya.chandra@gmail.com Delft University of Technology, Department of Urbanism 8 th Graduation Lab Urbanism Conference January 9 th 2015