We were on a flooded, muddy road of Aya Nagar, one of Delhi’s many unorganised urban villages, that the municipal map never acknowledged. Ganju, an architect and urban designer by training, initiated the Aya Nagar Development Project as a way to show that change was possible if you involved the community. It directed his life-long search for what Indian architecture should be. His unquenching zeal to engage with the local community led to the Aya Nagar Village Development Plan. When then chief minister Sheila Dikshit visited Aya Nagar in 1999, she found the project inspirational and declared it as a model village, suitable for development.

Source: Indian Express May 07, 2021 08:40 UTC