Delhi street map - how useful?

Haylo

Yesterday, at a London bookshop, my partner found a surprisingly detailed street map covering the Delhi area, it even shows house numbers!

Which begs the question, do the streets have name plates like they do here in Europe? If not, a map would be of limited use to me, if I had to ask where I was, I could ask directions!

If the streets do have name plates, what language are they in? I've not yet learned all the devanagari letters, so it would be tempting fate to want them to be in Hindi! Would be good practice though.

SitaParityaga

Good question, Haylo! Got me going back in time to Delhi...and looking around...and may-be I saw a very few? Like one?

Just the same....cool map, sounds useful.

chad

I never saw street signs with the names of the street on it, and I spent a month there last year. Only maybe some signs pointing the direction to e.g. Karol Bagh or this-or-that school maybe. I found it funny to look at the maps in LP or other guide books which list some street names that a hotel or restaurant is on because I never saw any signs displaying such street names which are listed in such books when I was in Delhi (or anywhere else in India 99.999% of the time).

brownboy66

for the major roads and streets....yes, it will be handy. When it come to finding specific houses or something like that - best thing to have a local driving who knows the area or someone who can speak hindi to ask directions (which is what everyone does).

yes the major roads/ streets have large signs both in english and hindi. The address of a place, however, is by no means an indication of where the building actually is. To give you an example - the place we live in is technically listed as being on a major road. The only thing is that there is no access to our house from that road (even though that's our address). To get to our place you have to come off a back alley (which has no name) which comes off a completely different street.

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Haylo

Only in India...

Good to know that major roads and streets have signs, that will at least enable me to get my bearings. On the boards here, I have seen recommendations for some great sounding places to eat in Delhi, but first I would need to find the right street!

puchoo

Just to add on - Even local auto guys etc might not necessarily know the street names...there are a handful in Delhi which are popular enough but in general no..

Mrs P likes to drive around by street names...i dont even bother trying to remember the name...

For example if i had to give you directions from South Ex to Defence Colony (less than 1 Km)....it would be left at flyover and then right at the traffic light.....if you had to go via street names...you would need to remember atleast 3...with names that are not easy to pronounce!!

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Indizen

All major roads in Delhi do have the street names displayed in English and in Hindi. There are big hoardings at the main intersections with proper directions and distances as well.

lovish

wow great bro , i never saw any map of an indian city that much detailed

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Haylo

Good point, that. Not only are they difficult to pronounce, but I am having a lot of trouble remembering them. Perhaps it is because Indian place names are still so unfamiliar?

Nick-H

Eicher City Map?

My Chennai one is worth its weight in gold .

It gave me freedom from auto drivers.

Now there is MapMyIndia; WikiMapia; GoogleMaps; Google Earth --- all of which are helpful both for finding your way around, and for getting a feel of the layout of a place before coming. I still use my Eicher mapbook; one copy in the house, one in the car.

Chennai has English/Tamil street signs in the centre, but Tamil only in the outer skirts. Shops, though, tend to put their entire address on their sign board, so, except in entirely residential streets, one does not have to go far before finding out what road you are in.

Some Indian cities do not have English name-boards (or bus signs). Its partly a political thing.

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shashank.aggarwal

I agree with Puchoo, not many people go by street names, its simply the number of redlights you have to cross, which flyover you have to to under and stuff like that...etc etc..

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puchoo

I am not arguing on the signage....but it does not help when neither the taxi/auto guy nor your driver does not know them...

If you have ever asked for directions in Delhi, or if you ever do that - no one is going to give them to you with respect to which streets you need to get on to...

The most common/popular road is probably ring road , then roads like Sardar Patel Marg , Janpath, KG Marg....limited...

Haylo

Thanks, this is really helpful. If someone tells me about places to visit, I'll make sure I get directions, not an address!

I was going to say surely you cross on the green lights, but then again, this is India...

capt_mahajan

Joke about a Delhi taxi driver who jumps all red lights. Tourist finally asks him, why did you do that?

"Because I am a sher da puttar (son of a lion), all of us do this", the cabbie says.


Next light, red, jumped again. Why? "Sher da puttar"

Next light, green. Cabbie screeches to a halt.

Tourist says, now what?

Cabbie replies, " Now all the sher de puttars coming from the other side, sir"

shashank.aggarwal

Get an address too, its would be helpful at the 'Micro' level..