ABSTRACT
Amonumental site such as the ACC also receives criticism from various quarters. There are many environmentalists, urban planners and housing activists who disapprove of the ways in which land that belonged to the protected strip of river embankment was appropriated by the ACC. However, the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court have underlined the legitimacy of its construction; the latest court decision to this effect was taken in July 2009. For the opponents, the construction of ACC is but the beginning of a radical and brutal urban transformation of the city of New Delhi, towards commercialisation and privatisation of public space, enforcing yet another form of social discrimination through spatial segregation. Many voices have articulated concerns about the growing aggression of the upper middle classes against ‘illegal’ housing of the poor in the light of revamping urban space for ‘world-classification‘ (see Appadurai 2006; Batra and Mehra 2006b; Baviskar 2003; Chatterjee 2003). Another concern is the rising real estate prices in neighbourhoods close to Metro stations or prime sites like the ACC.
