The walk between Delhi Gate and Ajmeri Gate is nothing but a nightmare for women. The stretch — projected as the first zone to be designed on the basis of a gender audit before the Commonwealth Games in 2010 — is in a mess.

The sidewalk and the cycle track, outside the busy Lok Nayak Hospital, are blocked by barricades and ropes, defeating the project’s very purpose of providing continuous access to pedestrians.

The pilot project, with women’s safety as a key element, was planned in 2009 as an example of gender sensitivity but was executed only partially by the erstwhile MCD before the Games and never taken up again. Changes made for pedestrian safety now appear as safety hazards.

TOI, tracking the project since the planning stage, has found that with every passing year the changes made have deteriorated, making the stretch dangerous. In the first phase, concrete cycle tracks and tiled sidewalks were built and streetscaping was made with shrubs planted as buffers against busy roads. New streetlights were also put up along the stretch. Now, the sidewalks have been taken over by hawkers and hospital ambulances, and the multi-functional zone where plantation was carried out for beautification has become full of overgrown, unkempt bushes.

People are also forced to walk in the middle of the road and negotiate heavy traffic as barricades — with ‘Delhi Police’ written in red — have been put up on the footpath and the cycle track.

The blockade starts from the sidewalk near the LNJP gate leading to the maternity emergency. Women holding newborns can be spotted here crossing the busy road through traffic as the lone subway outside the hospital also lies locked. PCR vans near the hospital are the only reminder of help planned for women here.

The stretch has hospitals like LNJP and GB Pant, besides Zakir Hussain College and all-girl Mata Sundari College. Around 44% of the women pedestrians surveyed in 2009 by Jagori, an NGO, said they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. The situation doesn’t seem to have changed much.