Do you need a mall near your home?

New Delhi: The quiet streets of a residential neighbourhood. People ambling along, sprawling houses, overhanging trees. The large park where the elderly go for their morning walk and where the kids play.

But now as Delhi grows and there's more construction, commerce has started entering the friendly neighbourhood. The traffic has increased as has the congestion. Is the residential neighbourhood a thing of the past?

With the MCD on a demolition drive in Delhi, some of the questions being asked are how would having a mall in the neighbourhood affect you and should commerce be separated from people's homes?

Says Architect and Urban Designer, Ravi Kaimal, "As long as the commercial establishment doesn't invite large numbers of people or cars, there shouldn't be a problem."

"The Resident Welfare Associations may say they don't want mechanics shops and banks in their neighbourhood but the fact is that they need them. You can't have a city of just apartments. If you have entire areas with just commercial establishments after five they become dark and deserted, unsafe for women. During the day there's too much traffic. It's better to have mixed land use," Kaimal adds.

Markets originally meant for the neighbourhood have now become markets for the city. The spill has entered the residential neighbourhood and Residents Welfare Associations don't agree with Kaimal that ofices can co-exist with homes.

President, RWA Vasant Vihar, Romi Chopra says, "We can't follow the examples of what happens elsewhere in the world. In London for instance, it may be fine to have shops offices on the first few floors and then accomodation on the top floor but India has a different demographic."

Women's organisations disagree with RWAs and say that smaller shops in the neighbourhood are actually a good thing.

According to the Coordinator of an NGO, Jagori, Kalyani Sen-Menon, "Small shops and tailoring establishments and so on actually help working class women. They are convenient and they increase safety since there's a sense of community and responsibility toward each other."

Perhaps the neighbourhood that only has homes and small shops is a luxury that North India's booming commerce capital Delhi cannot really afford.

The notification to allow mixed land use poses a number of questions - How will mixed land use be regulated and what data is going to be relied upon and will residents be consulted - being some of the important ones.

Everyone's agreed that for mixed land use to succeed, it has to be properly regulated and such regulation must be done in partnership with local communities, both trader and residents.