A couple of years ago, I had lunch with a pompous,egotistical former colleague. Towards the end of the lunch he asked me where I lived ( a favorite past time of Delhi residents) ? I told him Gurgaon. His response was "Gurgaon is a dump ". I left the lunch absolutely furious since Gurgaon is where I live.
For those of you who are not familiar with Gurgaon ( named after Guru Dronacharaya a guru from the Hindu mythology of Mahabharat) , supposedly a short version of Guru ka Gaon - meaning the Guru's village. It is a new township developed during the eighties to take some pressure off Delhi. It is part of the National Capital Region which is effectively a tri-city - Delhi in the middle with Noida on one side ( in the state of Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon ( in the state of Haryana).Gurgaon like Bangalore houses predominantly technology companies and multinationals. In addition it also the base of Maruti Suzuki which set up its first manufacturing plant here. Other Japanese companies such as Hero Honda followed. Auto-component manufacturers also set up plants in the vicinity.
The successive state governments of Haryana have always adopted real estate developer friendly policies, allowing the developers to purchase the land and then trying to squeeze in the infrastructure. This resulted in developments mushrooming after a rain, without a thought about the necessary infrastructure . Noida on the other hand purchased the land from the farmers, built the infrastructure and then sold the land.
The residential complex I live in is in a neighborhood which is reasonably upmarket, and was developed by one of Delhi's larger property firms. According to newspaper reports, there was supposed to be an area of 4 acres set aside for a electric sub-station. The developer however sold all the land and now there is no space left for the sub-station.
The power supply continues to a be problem and all the development complexes and private residences have had to invest large amounts in stand by generators which are used constantly due the erratic supply by the state electricity provider. Each year assurances are given that the situation is going to be different next year but it never is.
Every day when I drive to my office I pass by undeveloped areas, which have effectively become garbage dumps, strewn with plastic bags and construction ruble. These are just across the street from fairly upmarket hotels and plush offices.
The building in which I have my office is/was the flagship building of the second largest real estate developer in the country. Next to it is the regional head office subsidiary of a UK based FMCG company. Access to both these buildings is via a short street , the length of which is probably a couple of hundred yards. The street is a mess. Every year some patch work is done and come the monsoon, potholes appear and the road is flooded. You would think between the two companies they would spend a few hundred thousand Rupees to fix the road permanently to ensure that the tenants and employees do not get inconvenienced. Both of them behave like ostriches and refuse to do any thing , probably because its not within their courtyard.
All this in spite of the state government charging the owners ( through the developers ) development charges on a square foot basis, which the purchaser has to pay upfront. This is to be used to provide the basic infrastructure such as road, water and electricity. A large portion of the money is apparently lying unused. Whatever money is used is spent on giving contracts to service providers who have been black listed and yet continue to get contracts.
According to my guesstimate, Gurgaon should have one of the higher literacy rates among the cities in the country , including the professionals who work in the office buildings in the city . However it does not change our behaviour of not caring what is outside my compound. Time and again, I see middle class families or people in very expensive cars, not to mention buses, rolling down the window and throwing things on the roads, highways or outside the compound in which they live.There appears to be a total lack of civil sense.
In the almost six years since I have been here one thing has changed ( see my blog of March 2010 ). The stray cows which used to wander the streets have disappeared. Instead we have stray dogs and strangely enough stray pigs. It is not unusual to see a pig which has been run over lying on the streets. Wonder who owns them ?
I could go on, but there are however signs of changes ( not just from cows to pigs ) but certainly the transportation infrastructure has, and is continuing to improve. The last mile connectivity from the Metro station to the residences is now provided by scooter and man powered rickshaws. There is now a large bio-diversity park under development. You no longer have to drive to Delhi for cultural activities. Surprisingly you have some of the international rock bands performing here.It is expected that the power situation will improve from next year, but I would not bet on it.
Gurgaon is going through its evolution and hopefully over the next decade , things which make it a modern city will fall into place, but what is regrettable is that the state government had the opportunity to properly plan the city and put aside the land and build the infrastructure, as was done when my former home town Chandigarh was built ,but the successive politicians were too keen to cash in during their reign to worry about the long term. Unfortunately this is the story of modern India.
For those of you who are not familiar with Gurgaon ( named after Guru Dronacharaya a guru from the Hindu mythology of Mahabharat) , supposedly a short version of Guru ka Gaon - meaning the Guru's village. It is a new township developed during the eighties to take some pressure off Delhi. It is part of the National Capital Region which is effectively a tri-city - Delhi in the middle with Noida on one side ( in the state of Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon ( in the state of Haryana).Gurgaon like Bangalore houses predominantly technology companies and multinationals. In addition it also the base of Maruti Suzuki which set up its first manufacturing plant here. Other Japanese companies such as Hero Honda followed. Auto-component manufacturers also set up plants in the vicinity.
The successive state governments of Haryana have always adopted real estate developer friendly policies, allowing the developers to purchase the land and then trying to squeeze in the infrastructure. This resulted in developments mushrooming after a rain, without a thought about the necessary infrastructure . Noida on the other hand purchased the land from the farmers, built the infrastructure and then sold the land.
The residential complex I live in is in a neighborhood which is reasonably upmarket, and was developed by one of Delhi's larger property firms. According to newspaper reports, there was supposed to be an area of 4 acres set aside for a electric sub-station. The developer however sold all the land and now there is no space left for the sub-station.
The power supply continues to a be problem and all the development complexes and private residences have had to invest large amounts in stand by generators which are used constantly due the erratic supply by the state electricity provider. Each year assurances are given that the situation is going to be different next year but it never is.
Every day when I drive to my office I pass by undeveloped areas, which have effectively become garbage dumps, strewn with plastic bags and construction ruble. These are just across the street from fairly upmarket hotels and plush offices.
The building in which I have my office is/was the flagship building of the second largest real estate developer in the country. Next to it is the regional head office subsidiary of a UK based FMCG company. Access to both these buildings is via a short street , the length of which is probably a couple of hundred yards. The street is a mess. Every year some patch work is done and come the monsoon, potholes appear and the road is flooded. You would think between the two companies they would spend a few hundred thousand Rupees to fix the road permanently to ensure that the tenants and employees do not get inconvenienced. Both of them behave like ostriches and refuse to do any thing , probably because its not within their courtyard.
All this in spite of the state government charging the owners ( through the developers ) development charges on a square foot basis, which the purchaser has to pay upfront. This is to be used to provide the basic infrastructure such as road, water and electricity. A large portion of the money is apparently lying unused. Whatever money is used is spent on giving contracts to service providers who have been black listed and yet continue to get contracts.
According to my guesstimate, Gurgaon should have one of the higher literacy rates among the cities in the country , including the professionals who work in the office buildings in the city . However it does not change our behaviour of not caring what is outside my compound. Time and again, I see middle class families or people in very expensive cars, not to mention buses, rolling down the window and throwing things on the roads, highways or outside the compound in which they live.There appears to be a total lack of civil sense.
In the almost six years since I have been here one thing has changed ( see my blog of March 2010 ). The stray cows which used to wander the streets have disappeared. Instead we have stray dogs and strangely enough stray pigs. It is not unusual to see a pig which has been run over lying on the streets. Wonder who owns them ?
I could go on, but there are however signs of changes ( not just from cows to pigs ) but certainly the transportation infrastructure has, and is continuing to improve. The last mile connectivity from the Metro station to the residences is now provided by scooter and man powered rickshaws. There is now a large bio-diversity park under development. You no longer have to drive to Delhi for cultural activities. Surprisingly you have some of the international rock bands performing here.It is expected that the power situation will improve from next year, but I would not bet on it.
Gurgaon is going through its evolution and hopefully over the next decade , things which make it a modern city will fall into place, but what is regrettable is that the state government had the opportunity to properly plan the city and put aside the land and build the infrastructure, as was done when my former home town Chandigarh was built ,but the successive politicians were too keen to cash in during their reign to worry about the long term. Unfortunately this is the story of modern India.
