[Assam] Nightmares in Mall Town

[Dilip/Dil Deka]

Here is what is happening in Googaon.
  As so often, a sweet idea has turned sour in India.
   
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  Nightmares in Mall Town   Jams. Power breakdowns. Water shortages. Road rage. Spiralling crime. Gurgaon, India’s metaphor for the future city, is in a messy hole. And everybody is complaining. Shantanu Guha Ray and Harsha Baruah report

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>From a distance, it looked like a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar being held in the open: scores of senior executives of top mncs and their families braving the blistering July heat to stand in an empty swimming pool at Gurgaon’s ultra-expensive Central Park apartment complex. A huge blue banner in the backdrop hinted at the obvious standoff between them and the builders, Mahindra-Gesco and Messrs Bakshi Builders, over a host of issues, prominent among them being the denial of rights to a swanky club once offered as bait with the condominium.

The protestors did not engage in any sloganeering, nor did they burn effigies. They simply walked in and out of the pool and dispersed. But the quiet, unusual protest once again brought into the limelight the perennial infrastructure problems residents face across Gurgaon, India’s dream city that is wilting under the pressure of half-a-million residents and an additional crowd of 15 lakh industrial workers/employees visiting the city six days a week. 

Consider the case of Central Park: with 408 apartments sold for around Rs 3-4 crore each, it is one of the prime residential zones in Gurgaon. But the builders, Gulab Farms Private Limited, a unit of Messrs Bakshi Builders, first delayed the project for more than a year and are now charging a host of internal development charges from the residents. 

Says resident Rajiv Sharma, Airtel ceo for small and medium businesses: “We paid a non-refundable Rs 25,000 for the club membership. Worse, they are now passing on internal development charges on to us.” Adds Vineet Kapila, vice-president, Coca-Cola, South-West Asia operations: “The builder wants to charge exorbitant fees for a club with facilities that other clubs in Gurgaon provide for Rs 400-500 per month. As per the records, almost all residents have paid additional sums ranging from Rs 5-11 lakh.” 

          
          can of sardines: one of Gurgaon’s biggest problems is the absence of public transport
Kapila, Sharma and others have written to Mahindra Gesco chairman Anand Mahindra, seeking his intervention. But it has not cut much ice since Mahindra Gesco was merely the project manager. Moreover, it is now out of the project. This, many say, is in short the biggest crisis afflicting the residential, mall and outsourcing hub of Gurgaon. In other words, what is promised is not delivered because the pressures are just too high. Says Sandeep Arora, India representative, Rare Whisky Collection and Central Park resident: “Growth needs to be supplemented with facilities. But when facilities are missing, you have all kinds of problems. Builders, private or otherwise, need to address these problems.” For example, the dlf Cyber City in Gurgaon gets power through its own gas-fired turbine that has steady supplies from the Gas Authority of India Limited. But how many apartments in Gurgaon have such facilities? 

Experts draw instant comparisons with cities like Noida and Greater Noida where the state government first developed the infrastructure and then started the construction process. But in the case of Gurgaon, it worked the opposite way. 

“The state government needs to work seriously on infrastructure before hawking these places. Just look at the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road and the malls and expensive condominiums coming up on both sides of it — do we have the infrastructure to support it?” asks Sanjay Kaul, head of an advocacy group on Gurgaon.

Agrees Arvind Mohan, vice-president, Omaxe Limited, one of the country’s leading builders: “When Gurgaon was being developed, the state government promised the moon to builders like dlf, Ansals and Unitech. Look at where we are today.” Mohan is supported by Abdul Bari, senior vice-president, marketing, Majestic Properties. “The Haryana government must have stricter building norms. Infrastructure is in a shambles and the concept of the integrated township is gone. Earlier, the norm was to have one car per flat, now it’s four cars per flat. Gurgaon is a messy, modern village.”   The gap between what is promised and what is delivered is vast. The current dip in residential real estate prices does not bother the builders because retail remains high on their radar. Malls are mushrooming all over Gurgaon and the pressure on traffic, power, security and water is on an all-time high. 
Many agree that the mall market has reached a saturation point, and that they either have to change their usp or face extinction. “The rate of growth of retail in India is approximately 30 percent. We have to take this into account when we’re asked whether there’s a glut of malls,” says Mohan. He adds: “The pie is getting bigger because the malls are catering to the whole family.”
That’s good news for the seller. But what about the buyer? Parking space comes at a premium all across Gurgaon. A recent study showed malls having only 40 percent parking space for its occupants and customers. As a result, Gurgaon — infrastructure-wise — is in utter chaos. 
            
          no breathing space: mushrooming malls have increased traffic and power pressures 

  The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam pegs the electricity requirement of Gurgaon at 90 lakh units per day and maintains there is no shortfall. But residents have a different story to tell. On an average, each home in Gurgaon has an hour-long load shedding a day. “The sanctioning of plots should have slowed down much earlier. Why is it that the bureaucrats are waiting for the extended Master Plan? It is because now they have realised the mess they have gone in,” says Pradip Jain, one of Gurgaon’s topmost planners.

Water is another crisis zone. Current estimates show Gurgaon could lose its entire drinking water reserve by 2012. A pipeline links the Western Yamuna Canal in Sonepat to Gurgaon, yet large parts of Gurgaon still do not receive water. What’s more, reports prepared by the Haryana Urban Development Agency (HUDA) say a high-tech city like Gurgaon must have high-tech solutions.

“But is it happening? Where are the hi-tech solutions? There is no satisfactory bus system. There is no monorail either. We have just started hearing about the Metro,” says GB Singh, president, Asian Professional Security Association that works across Asia. Singh, who has lived in Gurgaon — whose current police force covers a mere one-third of the city — for more than two decades, says that besides infrastructure tensions, crime is another cause for worry. “On an average, Gurgaon witnesses 10 thefts and five robberies in a day.”

That, incidentally, is the latest cause for concern and discussion for all those who live in Gurgaon, which HUDA still calls “India’s truly international city.” 
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