MUSHROOMING OF NEW TOWN SHIPS:CHANGING URBANSCAPE

Actually as the cities grow grdually they become non affordable especially high demand locations in the city. The poor social class is not able to afford staying in the prime locations in the cities. The cities act as magnet for the villagers since create job opportunities and attract for urban life. Some cities have very high level of migrated populations from the surrounding area as Delhi has been attraction for the people in search of better job opportunities and better living conditions.  The large number of floating population in Delhi is from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which has created sometimes the political hue and cry also. The large number of masses staying in mega cities e.g. Delhi and Mumbai creates a loading on the existing infrastructure of the cities.

The development of Navi Mumbai and further development along Pune and Goa corridor had brought down the skyrocketing prices of Mumbai real estate on the ground and load on the existing infrastructure also reduced in old Mumbai. Similarly the development of the fringes cities around Delhi e.g. Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad has further reduced the pressure on the Delhi. There is need for proper and economical connectivity to these suburbs cities to make them functionally viable and efficient. The dwelling density control is also required to be done in the existing mega cities by shifting the over flooded population to the surrounding areas, similarly the employment opportunities are also required to be created in the suburb cities.

The Gurgaon has got the tag of High Tech city since most of the corporate have their offices and majot IT companies are also having their establishments in Gurgaon. This is created job opportunities also as well as provided better living conditions but at the same time the development of infrastructure could not cope up with the development of the city. At present Gurgaon is facing several problems like water, power shortage as well as solid waste disposal failure. The high end buildings are facing problem of electricity shortage creating havoc for working class.

Similarly if we analyze the Indirapuram it has become the concrete jungles without proper breathing spaces (green covers) but this has shoot out due to better connectivity to Delhi and proximity to Noida and provided cheaper residential options. Even today this is one of the preferred location by young working couples due to cheaper housing option. Some how the Noida and Greater Noida have maintained their galore due to planned effort by the development authority. The Metro connectivity to Noida and further planning of extending the same to Greater Noida has further boosted the development prospects of these cities. If we need to keep the sustained growth level of Noida, Greater Noida a comprehensive planning is to be made for development of Delhi- NCR. The National Capital Regional board has some how failed to  perform for development of comprehensive NCR. The most unfortunate part of the story is NCR areas are not free zones for Delhi economic activities being under tag of different states. As Noida, Greater Noida are in Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon in Haryana.

These surrounding cities should also provide the commercial areas parallel to Connaught Place and other commercial areas as well as other social infrastructure e.g. entertainment, medical facility, education support as available in Delhi.  If we analyse will fine the Gurgaon has led to development of  Manesar, Dharuheda, Bhiwadi, Kotputli and Jaipur and NH-8 has  become an unbroken corridor of development. Similarly the NH 24 and NH 56 are both hotbeds of township development is just 45km short of Meerut. The Chandigarh route boasts of developments along Kundli, Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal and Chandigarh.

So what makes buyers to buy in these areas? The first round of buyers during a pre-launch earlier and now a launch are investors and small retail buyers whose only criterion is to buy where the property is affordable. Even today a property loan, despite high interest rates is a good means of saving on taxes. But all township developers maintain that while it is important to rope in investors to keep cash flows moving, the success of any township depends on how well the developer can sell to the local end user.

In Karnal about 50% of buyers are local people who want newer and better homes. In many cases, in a city like Karnal where there are a large number of educated professionals who have worked in the various research institutes in the city, they need to prepare for file after retirement. The modern profile of our township and the promise of security was a big draw for them in addition, the fact they would get lifestyle features was important. Of the original investors, many sell back to local population when the project come about six months from completion of a project.

Globally the creation of a new township should result in huge revenue to the local authority by way of registration and property taxes. However with very high registration, transfer and mutation fee, and weak enforcement in most parts of the country, most properties remain unrestructured. In places like Gurgaon, where the sanctioned single floors constructed after receiving approvals from the authorities are not allowed to be registered because of an office memo declaring it as illegal, registration obviously is the last on priority lists. This significantly accounts for the municipal administrations dragging their feet when it comes to providing the infrastructure connectivity by way of transport and utility networks.


Let us make our fringe cities self sustained cities in all respect to make a successful in all respect and real substitute to mother city.