Gurgaon - The urban slum

I am starting this post on the back of three uncompleted, unpublished posts hence I am quite committed to complete and publish this one.

I guess a lot of negative energy/feelings surrounding me have to be attributed to the environment around me. Obscene amounts of incompetence are on display everywhere around me. If readers have not been able to decode/decrypt what I have said - I will make it simpler for them. I am talking about the urban slum called Gurgaon, which is located in a state called Haryana and it is a part of NCR. A few dickheads have started calling the city with the name - "Manhattan of India".

There are lots of flats, houses and rooms available in Gurgaon to live. However, the city lacks basic infrastructure which is required in a city. I will list down the basic infrastructure which I think is essential

1) Land - Plenty of land is available in Gurgaon

2) Buildings - Again, a lot of building for residential purposes are available, but i do not understand why everything is so damn expensive. One of the residential complexes of DLF is as expensive as 18000/- per month of rent for about 2-1/2 BHK. The layout of the flats is quite unimpressive and the location is also not so great. Moreover, the maintenance of the apartments is aweful - the outer facade looks weathered and the lobbies are shady. However still they are rated so highly. I do not understand which parameters are used to evaluate an apartments rent.

3) Water - There is almost no support from government on the "waterfront". Most of the societies are oblivious to the water recycling systems. They are using underground water for their daily usage. I am sure this would effect water table adversely. But this city is a prime example why commercial interests always supersede any other concerns and for that matter environment concerns that are going to effect all of us.

4) Electricity - The issue of electricity supply is plaguing the whole country so I am not going to complain about it here

5) Commercial and industrial areas - We have abundance of commercial and industrial area in Gurgaon. I guess it is the prime reason that so many people have to live in this place. However, commercial also means shops and merchant areas which I guess has been completely overlooked when the city was being planned, if at all. The only thing we have in the name of merchant outlets are the 4 or 5 city malls.

6) Roads - I think Gurgaon is much better ranked in terms of roads but you have to look at fact that most of the good roads are located around the areas where big builders are developing their projects. Good roads would increase the selling price of their projects. But there are so many these projects out there that I have to give this to authorities that major linking roads are fine here. But please beware, the roads are showing the signs of wearing off and big pot holes can be seen in otherwise smooth roads.

7) Public Transport - One of most basic needs of a city is public transport. It forms the backbone of a city. But this aspect has been mysteriously missing any of the development debates on Gurgaon city. What astonishes how can somebody neglect the importance of a well connected public transport system in a big city like Gurgaon. Imagine London. mumbai or NY without their public transport. The result of such negligence is that Gurgaon houses have more than one vehicle per house. As a result of this we have so many traffic jams. Absence of sufficient traffic rules enforcement officers makes traffic ethics an idealist's dream. Traffic is just a very myopic issue that we can foresee. One must also consider adverse environmental effects due to fuel consumption by the excessive number of vehicles. In addition public transport helps in mobilizing poor workforce who can not afford their own private vehicles, hence increasing employment opportunities for them and thereby also reducing cost of living for most of us since excessive demand of workforce will be met by sufficient supply numbers provided by a functional public transport system. This also helps the economy by providing a system for efficient distribution of cash flow across various demographies. However the government seems quite oblivious to this concept.

I guess most of the city administration is either innately retarded or they have some ulterior motives to pursue.

Anyways, thats a whole lot of bullshit I have written and I must thank you if you have read the whole post. You are incredible and you have shit load of free time.