On Our Urban Disasters

TK Arun’s column in ET today, titled “No more Gurgaons, for climate’s sake,” is above all an admission of the fact that a brand new city like Gurgaon has failed. Arun uses Marxist terminology to describe Gurgaon – great “superstructure” but no infrastructure. Indeed, not even a central business district.

To me, the disaster that is Gurgaon is best appreciated by looking at Sikandarpur, the old village that lies on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. If you travel on this road from Mehrauli, Sikandarpur occurs shortly after you cross the border into Haryana. In the old days, the M-G Road went straight through Sikandarpur, Now, the road by-passes the village altogether. And our crazy authorities are building the elevated tracks of the Metro Rail right through Sikandarpur. In other words, Sikandarpur Market is now totally inaccessible. This means Sikandarpur has been effectively killed.

Our The State knows nought about cities, and only pretends to develop villages. You see “urban villages” all over south Delhi – Zamrudpur, Adhchini, Katwaria Sarai, Hauz Khas village, Masoodpur, Mehrauli… and so many more. These are all hell-holes today.

Not that the “city” areas are any better. As with Gurgaon, so with south Delhi, all the “posh” residential localities have been laid out by the private real estate firm DLF, with our The State supplying the internal roads. It is these roads that are badly designed. Because of this, even the posh areas of south Delhi are unlivable today. If TK is calling for “no more Gurgaons,” I am calling for no more Delhis.

But urbanization must proceed at full pace. TK says that in the next 15 years, India’s urban population will grow by 200 million. That is, more than 20 per cent of the total population will move from villages to cities. For them, there must be new cities and towns, and good, livable cities and towns.

The greatest challenge India faces today is urbanization. It is therefore astounding that all our central planners continue to have their heads buried in village India. The flip side of "rural development" is nothing but urbanization. A village “develops” when it urbanizes – and becomes a town. This should have happened to Sikandarpur. This should have happened to Zamrudpur, Adhchini, Katwaria Sarai, Hauz Khas village, Masoodpur, Mehrauli… the lot.

Of course, Gurgaon and NOIDA both happened as spillovers from Delhi. TK is worried about energy use and climate change – but such a huge urban agglomeration at such a location as Delhi is in itself a bad idea because of the weather. In Delhi, for 8 months of the year, you need air-conditioning. And for the rest, you need heating. I would prefer smaller cities coming up where the climate is mild. Only this would reduce our energy consumption. If we declare unilateral free trade, the western ghats would be an ideal place to locate many new port cities. And their satellite towns. There is nothing now between Bombay and Goa, and nothing between Goa and Mangalore. There is lots and lots of empty land, rivers, beaches and mountains. This is an area with tremendous potential.

Yes, Gurgaon has failed. But so has Delhi. So has Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta…. The fault lies in the heads of those occupying the “commanding heights.” These heads should roll.