India’s capital, New Delhi is being prepared to host the 18th G20 Summit which will be held in September 2023. Under the G20 Presidency, India is to welcome a large number of foreign tourists and other guests at the conference. India’s presidency began on December 1, 2022 and during the one year tenure several events on two major tracks that are Finance and Sherpa are taking place.
New Delhi will host eight G20 events starting from March 1, 2023 with the meeting of G20 foreign ministers and culminating with the meeting of heads of governments and states on September 9-10, 2023.
While the work of redevelopment of Pragati Maidan and its surrounding area is being done at a rapid pace, all the preparations are being carried out including road and security for the movement of foreign guests.
Two Yamuna riverfront projects probable venue for G20
Notably, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is going to play a crucial role for the success of G20 in the country’s capital Delhi. The DDA is currently developing one of the two newly developed green spaces on the banks of the Yamuna as possible venues for the global event.
For the G20 Summit 2023, two projects near Yamuna river – Baansera and Asita East are considered for the global event. Baansera is a bamboo garden being developed near Sarai Kale Khan and Asita-East is located on the eastern bank of river Yamuna near the ITO barrage.
All set to grab global attention
The G20 India events have already taken the center stage across the globe. It is one of the most influential and decisive international events that is being held. India’s G20 Presidency represents the ‘Global South’ as stated by External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar earlier.
The landscape and other infrastructure work at these two sites is being carried on at a rapid pace. DDA Vice Chairman Manish Kumar Gupta also visited these sites on December 18, 2022. Two sites named ‘Bansda’ and ‘Asita East’ are being considered for one or more meetings to be held in the national capital next year during the G20.
The landscape work is currently underway, and other infrastructure such as walkways, toilets, bamboo structures for seating, etc. are being developed at the two sites. A meeting center curated with bamboo is also likely to be developed once the site is finalized.
Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena is also likely to inspect these sites this week. Currently these two venues are being considered but no final decision has been taken yet. Extensive work is underway at both the sites.
15 kinds of 20,000 plantations at Green Space
In August this year, LG laid the foundation stone for the first bamboo-themed park in Baansera, Delhi. To grow it, about a month ago, 20,000 saplings of 15 varieties of bamboo were procured from Assam and the DDA has so far completed planting of about 11,000 saplings. Spread over 12 hectares, the park will have more than 25,000 bamboo trees after it grows. The park is classified into two parts – ‘Bamboo Recreation’ in the Greenway Zone and ‘Bamboo Plantation’ on the banks of the Yamuna River.
Apart from this, the park will have facilities like kiosks, huts for people to sit, watch tower, wooden decks for cultural events or meetings, exhibition space and a greenway area with unpaved paths. A large area with seasonal flower gardens is also being developed.
Overcoming challenges
Developing the Bamboo Theme Park of Bansera has been no less than a big challenge. Actually, earlier the debris and garbage of construction sites were dumped here. In such a situation, cleaning it and preparing a bamboo theme park has also been quite challenging. Second, in the short time it took to prepare, more work was required, of which the team involved in the construction work proved capable.
At the same time, the area was leveled before planting trees on this site. Simultaneously, landscaping work is going on separately at the sites. The work at the site is going on at a fast pace, but it will take some more time for the area to be fully developed as a bamboo park.
On the other hand, the second site, Asita Purva, is a total land spread over 90 hectares, which has been developed by the DDA as part of the ambitious ‘Yamuna Riverfront Redevelopment Project’. Work on the project began in 2017 and was inaugurated by the LG in September this year.
Migratory birds will be seen
The two locations were revived in 2017-18 after large-scale encroachment and illegal cultivation were removed. For this landscaping work was done, the area was cleaned, the water body was revived and infrastructure like a lawn of about 30 acres with different varieties of grass was developed.
DDA has revived the reservoir spread over 5 sectors. This is the reason that a lot of migratory birds also visit this area. Not only this, the process of installing benches on the banks of the reservoir is going on so that people can come and sit here to see the picturesque view. Public convenience blocks have also been installed here.
Arrangements for Tourists
The Delhi Police has also geared up for organizing the G20 summit in the Capital. Along with security preparations, instructions have been given to reconstitute the Tourist Police in Delhi. At the same time, in the meeting of police officers, many issues related to this event have been duly discussed.
Keeping in view the security and other arrangements for foreign guests, instructions have been given to prepare a proposal regarding the empowerment of the Tourist Police. The main role of the Tourist Police is to protect the foreign guests from any kind of inconvenience, the Tourist Police also has the responsibility of escorting the tourists to the designated places safely.
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