Fig. 129: CONNAUGHT PLACE, The British constructed Central New Delhi with its well-planned layout, just prior to the onset of World War I. Comnaught Place, once the commercial heart of the British Raj, is today a busy tourist area that bears little resemblance to the thatched-roof colonial district it used to be; home to a wide variety of international shops and restaurants, attracting the town's Western visitors. Hindustan Times Archives