Now that the Commonwealth Games are over, it is time to look at the legacy of the sporting event that left Delhi poorer by at least Rs 87,500 crore – estimates range all the way beyond Rs 1,02,000 crore. Madhav Raman, partner at Anagram Architects, a New Delhi-based design consultancy, says both in terms of tangibles such as the creation and improvement of physical infrastructure and intangibles such as announcement of Delhi’s arrival on the global stage, the Games proved to be a huge missed opportunity despite such escalation in costs. Excerpts from an interview with Ashish Sharma:

Commonwealth Games was billed as Delhi’s ticket to a world-class infrastructure. Now that the event is over, how do you view the legacy of the Games and its relevance for the city?
I think it is important to clarify what the “legacy” is. Urban infrastructure projects such as the new airport, new metro links, improvements to urban transport, provision of pedestrian facilities on roads were long overdue and desperately needed to be launched regardless of the Games being hosted. The contentious “city beautification” projects were an ad-hoc last ditch effort perceived by many to be out-of-sync with the city's cultural and social realities. It is unfortunate that the Games were needed to even activate infrastructure projects, but one must not assume that that is the only way.

There are primarily two things one looks for when one seeks to identify the legacy of the Games. Firstly, substantial additions to and broad-basing of the sports infrastructure in the city. The legacy on this front is far from satisfying with inordinate resources being deployed on doing inconsequential patchwork upgradations and simply not enough new infrastructure being created. Most certainly not enough has been done to take sports to the people of Delhi. The danger is that all the CWG venues will lapse into being the “white elephants” they had become after 1982 Asian Games.

Secondly, one seeks an intangible legacy. From boosting an enthusiasm for sports to including the citizen in creating a shared urban vision to celebrating Delhi's arrival on a global platform, the Commonwealth Games have been a huge missed opportunity for Delhi.

In that case, how much of the planned development for the Games is justified?
I think it is fair to say that planned development of infrastructure for the city is more than justified; the manner in which the planning and execution of the development has been conducted is completely unjustified.

Which particular projects, do you believe, Delhi required in any case and which are the ones that the city did not?
I think the upgradation of the bus system and the provision of pedestrian facilities on the road to whatever minimal extent they have happened were definitely required. I feel from its inception as an extravagant and exclusive residential complex, to its location on the Yamuna flood plains, and its planned sale as super luxury condominiums, we could have done without this avatar of the Games Village.

Do you believe the expenses justify the kind and quality of infrastructure projects that have been delivered?
I think the high expense is because the projects have been undertaken as fire-fighting exercises after unforgivable delays of more than seven years. The last minute race to meet deadlines has meant that value-to-cost optimisation and transparent monitoring of expenses have been greatly undermined.

If you were to be given Rs one lakh crore rupees for such an event, or Rs 46,000 crore for sprucing up the city (as one estimate has pegged the non-CWG expenses incurred at) within three years, would you do it somewhat differently?
To begin with, time is a crucial resource for an emerging city to prepare to host an international mega-event. Let us be clear that the bid to host the Games was initiated nearly a decade ago and the city had eight years to prepare after being awarded the Games. The fact that ground is broken on Games-related projects let alone broader city development projects only two years before the deadline is a criminal waste of time.

Without trying to offer simplistic alternatives to how the money should have been spent, I would, however, change the location and nature of the Games infrastructure with a view to leveraging them to genuinely revitalise the sports and recreational culture of the city. I would spend substantially greater efforts and resources on engaging with and making the common citizen an equal partner in the hosting of the Games rather being a mere spectator.