On the menu are broader footpaths, a tourist plaza with food courts opposite Gowri Shankar Mandir, and revamped link roads around the stretch.

The project, civic officials say, is set to be completed in another five months.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has given a no-objection certificate to the Ministry of Science and Technology for the project. The ministry will fund the project, and if successful, MCD Deputy Commissioner Vijay Singh says it will be replicated elsewhere in the city.

Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal recently constituted a committee comprising officials from his ministry and agencies like the MCD.

Singh, the committee's nodal officer, says the panel would soon hold a meeting to discuss design details. "Our aim is to use new road-building technologies. The entire road surface will be removed, rather than adding a layer over the existing layer since adding layers makes roads higher than adjacent shops," he says. Singh says the civic body would take DJB and Power department officials to the spot to improve the drainage pattern.

"There is a slope towards Red Fort, and that leads to waterlogging after every spell of shower. We plan to correct the gradient to check this. We will redesign the divider and remove poles on them. Lights will be installed on the side of the road rather than in the middle."

He says nine BSES transformers in the carriageway (space between footpaths and the main road) would be removed and placed atop bus shelters after they are redesigned.

Once the project is completed, proportions, designs, footpaths, lighting and drainage system of the road will improve, Singh says. He says footpaths would be broadened to help pedestrians and parking would be made a strict no-no on either side of the road.