Kartavya Path: Rebuilding a public avenue

Four pedestrian underpasses and sixteen permanent bridges across the canals were among the additions when Delhi’s ceremonial avenue reopened as Kartavya Path in September 2022. Granite walkways replaced its earlier gravel and earth paths, extending access to areas beyond the water channels. [2]

Narendra Modi inaugurated the redeveloped avenue on 8 September and unveiled the statue of Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate. The government presented the change from Rajpath to Kartavya Path as a shift towards public ownership and responsibility. The physical works and the political meaning attached to the name were distinct parts of the occasion. [1]

An old axis, new facilities

The three-kilometre axis had originated as the approach to the Viceroy’s House, with lawns and canals on either side. After Independence, King’s Way became Rajpath. Long before the latest redevelopment, the avenue hosted the Republic Day parade and functioned as a civic garden and tourist destination. The project refurbished an established public space rather than creating the capital’s ceremonial route. [3]

The Central Public Works Department began work in March 2021. A first phase was ready for the Republic Day parade in January 2022, ahead of the September opening. Its completion account recorded 16.5 kilometres of granite walkways across the site—a cumulative path length, not the length of the avenue. There were eight underground amenity blocks, six vending plazas and 422 stone benches. [2]

The sanctioned cost was ₹608 crore. The ministry reported expenditure of ₹522 crore on 9 September 2022, a dated spending figure rather than a final audited bill. A February 2026 parliamentary reply continued to list Kartavya Path as completed in September 2022, separately from the new Parliament and Secretariat buildings. Their construction schedules and the wider programme’s budget belong to different projects. [2] [4]

Managing the reopened space

Use of the avenue also depended on rules applied after construction. A week after inauguration, the New Delhi Municipal Council said it would allow up to 90 ice-cream carts at six designated locations, with trade licences and a maximum of 15 at each. Carts had initially been kept out of the revamped space. The new plazas provided a planned place for vending, alongside tighter control over where it could happen. [5]

A 2024 field study by architecture students at the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, observed heavier footfall around India Gate after 5 p.m. and on holidays. Activity diminished towards Vijay Chowk, which the report associated with stricter rules and fewer hawkers. These were observations of how people used the precinct, not a measured change in access caused by redevelopment. [6]

Maintenance had become an issue soon after reopening. In November 2022, CPWD officials told The Indian Express that sections of the lawns nearest India Gate were being closed for 15 days at a time to protect grass from heavy footfall. Landscape architect Nidhi Madan argued that cordoning off public space compromised equitable access. She called for a landscape-management plan that kept that public purpose in view. [7]