| Vijay K. Saluja |
Vijay K. Saluja is a Senior Fellow (Urban Studies) at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, and is currently working in areas of local good governance, training of elected representatives and municipal functionaries, community participation, urban local bodies, effective infrastructure project management, and role of values and ethics.
Urban infrastructure is one of Saluja’s key areas. About the current growth of urban infrastructure, he says, “Due to rapid urbanisation, it was/is all the more imperative that all possible innovative, imaginative measures could have been taken by all the concerned stakeholders in a properly, planned (on long-term basis), designed and executed in a time bound manner, ensuring quality control and thus aesthetics, durability and sustainable maintenance thereafter. But, most of the parameters to ensure the same are missing, in the overall scheme of things.”
Saluja appears to be unhappy over infrastructure development in India and with experts and professionals who are guiding the sector. He says, “Muteness of professionals, filling the innards (executive committees) of Institution of Engineers, Indian Roads Congress, Indian Buildings Congress and many other professional bodies, contractors, and consultants-associations have made the infrastructure world of India a happy merrygo- round for making money (both overhand and underhand)!” A former Chief Engineer (Civil) in New Delhi Municipal Council, Vijay K. Saluja received his B. Tech (Civil) from IIT Delhi in 1968. He started working with New Delhi Municipal Council in 1969 as assistant engineer and retired as chief engineer, after 35 years of service in various areas of municipal engineering and management. He joined the Institute of Social Sciences in 2008. Saluja felt that the faculty in IITs and engineering colleges should come out of their cocoons and ignite the minds of their students on the need for integrity and professional competency.
