NEW DELHI : As tend to hasten down the subway at South Extension because you fear the loosely hanging fibreglass roof will fall on your head. Paan stains mark every possible corner of the dirty, unlit passageway.Suresh Kumar, the guard who has been stationed there for eight years now, revealed that smack addicts had stolen the fluorescent lights. “I once got into fight with them at 2-3am, and they held a knife to me. I can’t sacrifice my life for a lamp, so I replaced a few of the stolen CFLs with my own money,” old man mumbled.Move a few kilometres ahead, things are no better in Lajpat Nagar . The in the guard’s uniform there is drunk and out of his senses. “He is always like this despite so many complaints,” said a dismissive Ram Kumari, a sanitation worker.The space where an escalator is to be installed is filled with garbage, but Shikha Singh said they had no other way to cross the busy Ring Road. “I have seen men urinating at this spot, and after evening now woman uses the subway,” she added. In the last two decades, Delhi government has spent crores on these underground walkways. The Public Works Department maintains 47 of them, most in south Delhi. Others operated by the municipal corporations are defunct, many of them having turned into a hangout for drug addicts, like the one in South Extension.When TOI checked out the subways at Laxmi Nagar, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, South Extension, IIT, Lajpat Nagar, AIIMS, Bhikaji Cama Place and Munirka, it discovered how neglected these pedestrian facilities actually are.Things might change with PWD preparing a plan to have shops in the subways, mainly to prevent “antisocial activities” after evening hours. “We have been directed by PWD’s engineerin-chief Puneet Kumar Vats to make zone-wise list of subways where space, electricity and water are available and where it is feasible for shops to stay open till late in the night,” disclosed a PWD official. People in the department also revealed that the issue of anti-social activities was discussed in a meeting chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal Though subways at Connaught Place, AIIMS-Safdarjang Hospital and BSZ Marg have had commercial outlets for some time now, the image of a passageway as just a pedestrian structure has affected their viability. Over half a dozen shops are operating in the AIIMS-Safdarjang subway and keep the space lively and active. Chemist Naveen Singh testified, “If they have ownership of space, people take care of it. Shopkeepers prevent miscreants from taking over the area.” Professor Sewa Ram of the School of Planning and Architecture agreed that the shops would be a welcome addition, but said the design of the subways actually played a crucial role.“Subways must allow people to see inside before entering and clear visibility should be possible. No one wants to use units like the Yusuf Sarai subway because they feel like tunnels,” Ram explained.Ram also argued that business turnover should not be the aim in opening the shops. He pointed out how focusing on commerce has led to the experiment of cafes in the BSZ Marg subway failing. When built in 1995, it was the location for the Media Coffee Home, a joint venture of the municipal corporation and DTTDC.“The maintenance of the subway was the corporation’s responsibility and matters pertaining to the café, including marketing, were to be handled by DTTDC,” a civic official explained. The café did not survive for long. Various other food chains tried their hand, but the last closed earlier this year, leaving the space neglected and accessible for the homeless.Experiences like these would have informed the new plan to have shops in subways. Perhaps, the planners now have a formula that can work — and the subways cease being risk-filled spots.

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