Gurugram’s realty drivers

Vinod Behl

Several new far reaching initiatives taken and the  ones in the pipeline are likely to change the face of real estate and infrastructure landscape of Gurugram in the months to come. Some of these are: 

Mass Rapid Transport System

The new year may well prove to be a year of Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) for Gurugram with a number of projects seeing the light of the day. In a couple of months, one could see the Rapid Metro Phase 2 getting functional.Under this phase, rapid metro will get expanded from Sikanderpur Metro Station along Golf Course Extension Road, connecting it withDLF Phase 1, Sushant Lok, Sector 53/54, 55 & 56. One could also see the launch of Huda City Centre-Panchgaon- Bawal metro line along Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) and NH8, beginning next fiscal. Gurugram may well earn the distinction of launching India’s first Pod Taxi project, linking Dhaula Kuan with Sohna Road.

Connectivity boost to Dwarka E-way

Hope floats on Dwarka Expressway project that has been hanging fire for long due to delay in land acquisition and rehabilitation of the displaced persons. So far, only about 14 km of the 18 km-long E-way falling in Gurugram, with close to 1 lakh dwelling units under construction, has been completed. Caught in a legal tangle, the E-way still has bottlenecks at Kherki Daula on NH-8, New Palam Vihar, over 500 oustees are yet to be rehabilitated. Moreover, the work on the  9 km part of the 27 km-long E-way falling in Delhi, has not  started due to land acquisition hurdles. 

In order to tide over this, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is working on providing two link roads with Delhi. One of these link roads (4.5 km) is between Bijwasan and Bajkhera, near Palam Vihar where Haryana portion of the E-way ends. The other is to connect Sector 106/109 with Najafgarh Road.

GMDA — A step closer to reality

Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), conceived last year by Haryana government, has moved a step closer to become a reality, with the state government finalising the GMDA Bill 2016. Before  its finalisation, the Draft GMDA Bill was put in the public domain late last year for feedback and suggestions. The Bill will get statutory status after it is passed by the Haryana Legislative Assembly. And following that, the stage will be set for making GMDA functional. 

Last year, Haryana government had appointed senior IAS officer, V. Umashankar, as the OSD of the proposed GMDA while the process to recruit the CEO is on. GMDA, that will involve experts and residents’ bodies, in preparing the infrastructure development plan of the city, will put an end to haphazard development due to multiplicity of authorities and pave the way for a speedy, planned development of Gurgaon.

Tech boost to land management

The new year has seen Gurugram attaining a rare distinction of becoming the first district in the country to successfully accomplish digital mapping of land management. The use of drones and geo-referencing of land holding/land parcel, has enabled the creation of most accurate maps for the purpose of land record management. The use of high technology for land management, has helped considerably reduce/limit errors in land records over the past six decades. The digitally mapped land data will be connected to several government data bases and further provide complete spatial referencing of the land holdings, will bring efficiency in land management system, thereby fast tracking real estate and infrastructure development in the region.

Redressal body for homebuyers

Delay has been a big hurdle in the growth of real estate market in the NCR region over the past few years.  This has led to innumerable disputes between developers and homebuyers. In Gurgaon, the authorities floated an 'Allottees Grievances Redressal Forum and in the last few months, it worked actively to sort out the rising number of disputes between developers and home buyers. Now, in order to formalise and structure this body under Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA), the state government is mulling over floating  an exclusive regulatory body for grievances redressal. Though under RERA, there is a provision  for constituting a state- level dispute redressalk authority, the idea of an exclusive grievances redressal body for Gurgaon, emanated because of maximum numbers of  disputes in Gurgaon where bulk of the real estate development is happening. This body will come into being after Haryana government issues a notification about the formation of RERA.

Natural Conservation Zone

The year may well see  the identification and demarcation of Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ), following the constitution of a government panel by NCRPB last year. At present a total of 51000 hectare of NCZ area in NCR, falling under Haryana, has been finalised while large areas of Aravalis, spanning Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mewat, Rewari, Mahendergarh and Bhiwani districts, are still kept out of NCZ. But following the fresh demarcation of NCZ in these districts, a large chunk of area notkept under NCZ , may get forest tag and form part of NCZ. And once this ambiguity/ uncertainty over Araval/NCZ area, comes to an end, this will lead to real estate development in a planned and eco- friendly manner.