Delhi's Heat-Governance Crisis: How the Capital Stacks Up Against London, Seoul and Riyadh

Delhi recorded 47.2 degrees Celsius at Palam weather station on July 3, the fourth consecutive day above 45 degrees, and the Kejriwal administration's Municipal Corporation of Delhi cooling centres were running at roughly 60 percent capacity because of a disputed budget transfer from the Union government that has been stalled since May. That dispute — not the heat itself — is what city planners and ward-level officials say is the real emergency.

The timing matters because cities across the world are right now being judged on exactly this test: can urban governance hold together under climate stress? Washington DC cancelled Fourth of July outdoor events yesterday due to dangerous heat. Philadelphia shut public fountains early. Both those American cities are dealing with heatwaves, but their mayors have consolidated authority over emergency budgets. Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal does not. Under the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Amendment Act, 2023, services including land, public order and key municipal appointments remain under Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, who reports to the Modi government at the Centre. The result, say urban governance researchers at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, is a city constitutionally split down the middle during a public health crisis.

What Other Cities Are Doing Differently

Seoul handled its own record June temperatures this year by activating 1,847 designated 'cooling shelters' across all 25 autonomous districts — each district controlling its own emergency health fund without waiting for the national government in Sejong City. Riyadh, preparing for an even hotter July with temperatures topping 49 degrees, pushed emergency cooling authority down to the level of individual municipalities under the Amanah regional administration, which operates with a single chain of command. London activated its Heatwave Plan under the National Health Service's Level 3 alert protocol on June 28, and the Greater London Authority was able to redirect Transport for London funds within 48 hours to keep Tube stations cooled and open as public refuges. None of those arrangements require a call between a chief minister's office and a lieutenant governor before a cooling van can be deployed to Chandni Chowk.

In Delhi, the AAP government's flagship 'Mohalla Clinic' network — there are 519 functional clinics as of June — has become an improvised frontline heat response unit because it is one of the few infrastructure systems the state government controls outright. Clinics in Sangam Vihar and Trilokpuri, two of the city's densest low-income neighbourhoods, reported a 34 percent spike in heat-exhaustion cases during the last week of June compared with the same period in 2025, according to Delhi Health Department data. The Yamuna Flood Plain, where tens of thousands of families continue to live in semi-permanent structures following last year's resettlement disputes, has no fixed cooling infrastructure at all.

The Metro Question and What Comes Next

Delhi Metro Phase 4's Janakpuri West to Krishna Park Extension corridor, due to open its first 2.8-kilometre elevated stretch in September 2026, was initially floated by AAP as a climate-adaptive project — shaded stations, solar panels, reduced road congestion. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which is jointly owned by the Delhi government and the Union government in a 50-50 structure, has so far resisted AAP's request to open completed but unopened station concourses as emergency cooling zones, pending a formal safety certification the DMRC says cannot be expedited. That standoff is now three weeks old.

Residents in West Delhi's Tilak Nagar market area, where pavement temperatures have been measured above 55 degrees by Delhi University researchers, are not waiting for the paperwork. Shopkeepers along Jail Road have been running informal cooling rooms — air-conditioned back offices left open to the public — since the third week of June. It is ad hoc, uncoordinated and, for now, the most functional heat response in that part of the city.

The next critical date is July 15, when the Delhi cabinet is scheduled to present a revised emergency monsoon-preparedness budget. Whether the Lieutenant Governor's office approves the proposed Rs 340-crore allocation for flood and heat infrastructure — or tables it again — will determine how the second half of this summer is managed. Residents in Lajpat Nagar, Mustafabad and the resettlement colonies near Bawana should not assume the monsoon arrival, forecast for around July 10, will close the governance gap.