Sheila Dikshit, the three-time chief minister of Delhi, passed away on Saturday afternoon after a prolonged illness. She was 81.

At 3:55 pm, when she took her last breath at Escorts Apollo hospital, a glorious chapter of Delhi's rise to 21st century came to an end. Dikshit was the longest-reigning chief minister of Delhi, serving for 15 years from 1998 to 2013 the year that saw the emergence of Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party ending the Congress’s rule.

During her tenure, the national capital’s policy-making reached another level. When she came to helm in 1998 she was seen as an outsider by many. It was the time when Delhi was on the cusp of infrastructural development. The transition, though, was not easy. While she was the CM, Delhi got an infrastructural push with the Metro trains chugging through the most congested neighbourhoods, public transport switching to CNG and new flyovers changing the landscape of the city.

The ride was not smooth though. Controversies around ambitious Commonwealth Games (CWG) of 2010, Shunglu Committee report, failure of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, rising crimes against women, and Congress infighting were part of her career too. Then there was the December 16, 2012 gangrape that shook the nation’s conscience.

Never the less, it was not so. I too was a woman moreover, a mother and a grandmother. In the last decade or so, the growing confidence of the young girls and women of my city had been my source of delight. It sickened me as a long-time resident of Delhi to see this face of the city What should have been a moment for me to take charge of the situation was reduced to a moment of extreme frustration for the simple reason that law and order in Delhi was the Centre’s responsibility, Dikshit wrote about the incident in her autobiography Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life’, released in January last year.

Dikshit will be remembered as the CM who brought more than 70 new flyovers to Delhi, easing out traffic woes. Her last instruction to party workers was to stage a protest outside BJP headquarters against the detention of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi.

Former CM Sheila Dikshit’s last rites will take place at Nigam Bodh Ghat on Sunday afternoon.

The Delhi government declared a two-day mourning in the national capital as a mark of respect for her.