Delhi is a polluted and congested city

Everyone knows things are not getting any better in our capital city. With increasing road congestion comes higher amount of air pollution. With the higherst per capita income city in the country attracting migrants by the thousands every week, it is bound to get more heavily populated. With increasing population comes the stretch on resources and comes the water pollution, sanitation, higher level of sewage, just about everything!

Delhi could begin with learning simple things from within the country. For instance, as regards water, it could simply borrow from what Jayalalitha did in Chennai. Make it compulsory by law for all high rises to have water harvesting including rain water harvesting within a stipulated time frame, say by December 2009. Just need to share notes with Chennai on how this has changed the drinking water supply situation there.
Then, simple things like building concrete walls on both sides of the Yamuna right from where it enters New Delhi to the point where it exits. The dirty nullah water can then go along these walls through canals and get collected at the end of Delhi state in a large sewage treatment plant. A private company could develop this and also make money by selling the fertilizers / biofuel that come up from this sewage treatment plant. Some of this could even be used to light up the Yamuna in the evenings.
Instead of giving licenses to all and sundry for operating transport buses within the city, the government should insist on 4-5 big companies with credible business experience to operate these buses across Delhi. They could be insisted upon to give the existing drivers a first right of refusal to join the new bus fleets, subject to driving tests.
At the same time these companies should be insisted upon to use eco friendly, modern buses with driver operated doors so that there is no option for anyone to hang on to the door handles of a moving bus.
It would be far easier to manage a few companies than so many independent operators. Instead of thinking of buses as a menace, the Delhi government ought to give them special treatment and ensure that bus routes are prioritised across Delhi. Once the bus services are regularized, there should be special dedicated paths for the buses and they should get priority over all other vehicles.
Thereafter, the car parking fee should be increased manifold in the main office districts and on all parking spaces near any heavy traffic route. This would incentivize commuters to start car pools or avoid using cars altogether on a daily basis. The parking charges for 4 wheelers should be calculated basis some kind of a benchmark with the rentals for office / residential space in that area. Surely if a person works in an office area that probably costs the company Rs. 10,000 per sq.ft., he should not be expected to park his car for Rs. 10 per 4 hours or some such ridiculous amount.
As a further incentive for car pool, the government must introduce congestion fee in the main areas. Those who really have the money can always pay. And Delhi having the highest per capita income has a load of money anyways. So this could probably increase the government revenues significantly.
To ensure a market dependent rate, the government could offer parking spaces to established companies that work with handicapped people and that agree to automate the parking spaces. With these two conditions, whichever company agrees to pay the highest revenues back to the government should be granted licenses co terminus with the government.
With a decreasing number of cars and a priority to buses across all areas of Delhi, the government should then designate quite a few areas as pedestrian only areas, for instance, CP, Chandni Chowk, Sarojini Nagar, to take a few examples.
With the increased revenues coming through these, the government then should look at developing dedicated cycle paths across the state of Delhi and definitely so in areas that are now under development. Ideally, the cycle paths should be in place through large swathes of Delhi well before the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Will the government even start thinking on these lines? Well...now, thats a question!