The Delhi Urban Art Commission was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1973 to "advise the Government of India in the matter of preserving, developing and maintaining the aesthetic quality of urban and environmental design within Delhi and to provide advice and guidance to any local body in respect of any project of building operations or engineering operations or any development proposal which affects or is like to affect the skyline or the aesthetic quality of the surroundings or any public amenity provided therein"

The area of urban Delhi has expanded and it has become more densely built in the years since the DUAC was constituted. This givens even greater relevance to the injunctions in the original mandate. Ecology and heritage are more pressing concerns now, the difficulties of seeing the city as a whole in a situation where there are many decision- making bodies is more evident than before, and there is urgent need to have a vision for the future of the city's constituent elements.

In the last year the DUAC continued with the new direction which had been begun when the present Commission was appointed in April 2005 -- to take a holistic view of city-level issues (ranging from street-furniture to density and skyline) as well as to focus on proposals for sites critical because of size or location.

If in the 1970s the predominant concern was about uncontrolled high-rise development, in the 1980s issues linked with Asian Games in the 1990s the building of Dwarka and the freezing of the New Delhi Bungalow area, this decade's main concerns are about four issues - the threats to the remaining oases of open spaces, riverine and forest, the need to improve the quality of life in historic precincts, the need to ensure that dilapidated areas are 'redeveloped' elegantly, and to find ways in which traffic networks can work efficiently but with a humane quality. The significant initiative the DUAC took last year to highlight city-level issues in an exhibition 'Imagining Delhi', has been followed up by another, equally important, of preparing templates to serve as a model for future design exercises.

The major activities of the Commission ranged over many issues. The new Metro lines and the Commonwealth Games projects, and extensions to existing institutions, were examined in the context of the underlying ecology and of historic neighbourhoods. Agencies with overlapping jurisdiction were invited to discussions for norms about street furniture, and (with the cooperation of the NCT Government) to identify ways to 'improve' Shahjahanabad. Pilot projects initiated by DUAC, to serve as templates, include the proposals on Khirkee Village and on Sunheri Bagh, and the work on a Zonal Development Plan for the NDMC. Much time and thought has been given to the pressing issues of modifying and adding to transport-corridors. The Commission hosted a seminar on the Master Plan, and a meeting of architects who wished to discuss the issue of the proposed link road from east Delhi to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.