Why Gurgaon is a failed Millennial City!

Gurgaon is a city that symbolizes what a rising ‘new India’ should look like.

An ASSOCHAM report recently pointed out that with live investments of Rs 3.5 lakh crore out of Rs 5 lakh crore attracted by Haryana in live projects, Gurgaon accounted for almost 70 per cent of total investments in the last fiscal (FY 2014-15).

Factors like availability of skilled manpower and proximity to strong consumption markets in north India have helped Gurgaon evolve as a manufacturing and industrial hub attracting investments mainly from private sector in information technology (IT), information technology enabled services (ITeS), mechanical, electrical, textile, chemical and other sectors.

Adorned with shopping malls that show off Louis Vuitton and Gucci products via the glass panes of the high end shops, world-class golf courses that are spread majestically over hundreds of acres, a commercial hub called cyber city that’s home to some of the world’s finest corporations, a cyber hub that has got the best restaurants, automobile showrooms that flaunt shimmering Mercedes and BMWs, it’s not a surprise that Gurgaon is the highest revenue grosser of the state.

There is an unquestionable glam quotient to it, something that has earned it the ‘Millenium city’ tag over two decades. If you ever take a metro ride in the evening, it looks heavenly as Singapore. But mind you, only in the evening.

A stroll through the roads during the day may not be a very pleasant sight. On the outside, it may look like the place to be in. There’s an underlying opportunity for everyone here - IT giants, real estate developers, hospitals, car companies, hotel chains to FMCG companies – except on the inside consider what it does not have: organized public transport system and pothole-free roads, a properly functioning sewage and drainage system, strict police vigil, assured water and electricity supply, policy for discharging toxic waste and garbage generated by hospitals and clinics, well-spread sporting centers so on and so forth.

Year by year, spiraling towers multiply but so do the potholes on the roads and the amount of garbage thrown by residents on the roadside. What happens afterwards is for everyone to see on TV channels. A complete chaos-like situation ensues at Gurgaon hospitals. Dengue patients can be seen lying on the floor despite paying for expensive consultations at a swanky Medanta or Fortis. The lucky ones get stuffed in the balconies in a handful of poorly managed, often stinking government hospitals for want of beds. The unlucky ones die because there were no beds. Let's not even talk about the crime rate.

With such sad state of affairs, Gurgaon has registered faster implementation of investment projects as almost 95 per cent of these projects are under different stages of implementation while only about five per cent of investment projects have remained non-starter, the ASSOCHAM study highlights.

Fittingly, in this city that is emblematic of India's privatized aspirations, there is no place for the common man's woes. How then can it claim fame on an international level for world-class facilities in the absence of basic ones on the ground?

Having said that, it does get the maximum revenues for the state which clearly are not diverted towards ensuring public welfare, thanks to a corrupt governance system in place. Two decades on, still erratic, unplanned, sporadic and lacking in infrastructure, Gurgaon offers the perfect example of how not to urbanize and revolutionize India in the coming years. Call it irony, but the fact of the matter is it's simply a failed Millennial City despite being the highest revenue grosser state of Haryana.