Across Delhi-NCR, the word “jugaad” has become shorthand for improvised, makeshift solutions born out of necessity — a reflection of how citizens adapt to inadequate infrastructure and municipal neglect. TOI visited three locations across the region to capture how this culture of quick fixes often conceals deeper civic failures.

In Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram, a road lay damaged for nearly four months before a shop owner placed a broken chair beside a large pothole to warn passing motorists. In East Delhi’s Khichripur, police barricades stood in for proper repairs, serving as makeshift barriers that masked the extent of civic negligence. Meanwhile, at Vinod Nagar, near the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, a precariously positioned cement slab lay across a pavement — a hazard waiting for unsuspecting pedestrians.