India, Feb. 10 -- 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 grave problems (the blanket of poisonous air that hangs over the Capital, the toxic water that now flows through the once life-affirming Yamuna, etc) was the patchwork of five governments that controlled various aspects of the NCR - Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Centre. Under successive governments of all political shades, proposals often fell victim to competition in electoral politics....