India, Feb. 9 -- It is a region that spans 55,144 square kilometre and is home to some of the country's largest and most important cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad, as well as a population of 46 million people. But, for roughly four decades, the ambitious project of building a seamless National Capital Region (NCR) has proceeded at a snail's pace, hobbled by a mixture of poor planning, clashing administrative mandates and lack of political will. At the heart of the problem that afflicted this region and exacerbated already grave problems (think of the blanket of poisonous air that hangs over the Capital or the toxic water that now flows through the once life-affirming Yamuna) was the patchwork of five gov...