A new megaproject model and a new funding model. Travelling concepts and local adaptations around the Delhi metro

• The Delhi metro megaproject highlights the shift in the mode of financing in infrastructural development.
• Megaprojects are implemented through high levels of government in conjunction with specialized agencies and private sector actors.
• This case study underscores the absence of local authorities in mixed-use megaprojects.
• Land value capture leads to conflicts and rivalries between state agencies vying for influence over urban development.
• Knowledge about the megaproject is mediated through political leaders who assert episodically their position.

The practices and instruments of urban governance are rapidly changing in Delhi, a metropolitan area of 24 million inhabitants characterized by strong socio-economic inequalities. The Delhi metro megaproject and its financing mechanism through land value capture are the prism through which this paper analyses governance patterns at different scales. This model has led to the production of mixed-use spaces in the heart of the city, allowing for a spatial cohabitation of transport functions as well as residential, commercial, and economic uses, following a pattern that has been identified as one of the defining features of a 'new generation of megaprojects' (Diaz Orueta & Fainstein, 2009). It argues that although there has been significant institutional change, notably the entry of private sector actors in mega infrastructure development, careful analysis of the modalities of this mechanism reveal important aspects of continuity including the pre-eminence of techno-scientific planning, minimal stakeholder consultation and conflicts in the public sphere. The Delhi metro case will be situated within the larger Indian context, which has been marked since the 2000s by the emergence of city-centric growth strategies with public investments concentrated in large cities often in the form of public-private partnerships (Kennedy & Zerah, 2008), and the importation and adaptation of international models.