The lost pride of place
Bijendra Ahlawat
Once called the Manchester of North India, Faridabad city has lost badly to its neighbouring city of Gurugram, which has outshone it in the last 25 to 30 years. While Gurugram has earned the label of the millennium city of India, Faridabad continues to struggle with the issues of pollution, lack of basic amenities and a weakened industrial sector.
Faridabad city was selected for the elite Smart City Programme three years ago, but it is trying hard to shrug off the label of a poor cousin of Gurugram, located about 30 km away. The city having a population of 20 lakh still have many unaddressed issues that are hindering its growth. However, before proceeding to consider the present status of things, one needs to look back to explore the reasons that made the city remain a laggard.
Till 1980s, Faridabad was considered more developed. An interesting change started to take place when Maruti Udyog Limited decided to start production of the most popular car of the country in Faridabad. The expansion of the international airport and the shifting of big builders such as DLF, Ansals and Unitech to Gurugram at the time when huge tracts of land were purchased there at throwaway prices led to exponential development of the neighbouring city. The nexus between developers and politicians grew stronger by the day and the builders’ lobby collaborated with powerful leaders in the state and at the Centre to promote Gurugram in a big way.
“The growth of Maruti Udyog and its ancillaries accompanied with the development of an IT hub in Gurugram in 1990s paved the way for rapid growth that any city can imagine,” says Pawan Bansal a senior journalist. Things became so bad that people started calling the city Fakirabad. No multi-national company (MNC) was willing to set up shop in the city despite the fact that it had been home to at least 15,000 industrial units, a number of them family owned like Escorts Group and Lakhani India Ltd. It was only after Gurgaon reached a saturation point that the state government shifted its focus to Faridabad, which was already contributing around 60 per cent of the state revenue to the government, he adds.
People believe that the politician-builder nexus deliberately suppressed the growth of Faridabad, as they did not want to lose high profits on their investments in Gurugram. “So, the progress in Faridabad remained almost negative between 1990 and 2010. Industry and commerce majors decided to shift to Gurugram or other parts of the country, as Faridabad was still battling with civic issues such as poor power supply, broken roads and no incentives for expansion,” says an entrepreneur.
“Several big industrial houses decided to close down or shift their operations outside Haryana between 1995 and 2005 just because of the Licence Raj and exploitation at the hands of those in power,” says Navdeep Chawla, a prominent industrialist.
“Be it the first expressway or Metro rail connectivity, the state and Central governments gave preference to Gurugram, as influential persons in power had links or some kind of interest in development there,” says Satinder Singh, a retired defence officer based at Faridabad.
Even the Gurugram-Faridabad road was single lane till 2011 when the highway was expanded to four lanes.
AK Gaur, an entrepreneur, says that the government preference for the Maruti plant to come up in Gurugram acted as a catalyst for its sharp growth while Faridabad was neglected. The availability of plenty of land in Gurugram and its proximity to the international airport made builders and companies shift base there.
Pramod Minocha, president of the RWA Federation of Greater Faridabad, says that Faridabad was a manufacturing hub and 85 per cent of jobs were blue collar with low salaries. He adds that as Faridabad did not have enough money to invest in real estate, the city missed the IT revolution and highly lucrative jobs in the sector, while Gurugram witnessed the growth of infrastructure, automobile sector, malls, and cinema halls. “As infrastructure development was never a priority, no leader or elected representative has shown political willpower due to their vested interest,” he says.
“Today, developers in Faridabad want you to believe that it is the city of future, a far cry from the days when it was developed as one of the many industrial townships by the country’s first Prime Minister in late 1950s. Though the city is the ninth largest industrial estate in the country, it has now grown into a major investment destination. New housing colonies, malls and shopping complexes have sprung up in a place which was earlier known only for tractors, motorcycles and power looms,” says Amarjit Singh, a local resident.
“Faridabad was always a prominent industrial town of the country, but its growth witnessed a lull around mid-1980s. No attention was paid to infrastructure development which kept many big companies from coming to the city,” he says.
Faridabad having over 22,000 industrial units lost its appeal after many large companies closed their plants or shifted out due to issues related to labour, power and red tape. While neigbouring cities of Gurugram and Noida made big strides in civic infrastructure development and became the headquarters of several multinational companies, Faridabad was reeling under a shortage of basic amenities such as drinking water, poor sewerage and drainage, broken roads, irregular power supply and declining air quality. Unauthorised colonies and slum clusters mushroomed in Faridabad, earning it the tag of a dying city in the last two or three decades. While better connectivity with Delhi and Gurguram, expansion of the national highway passing through the city to six lanes and the start of Metro service two years ago are claimed to be the major achievements of Faridabad in the past one decade, unplanned growth of residential colonies and slums has made it look ugly, he says.
“Things started to change with the real estate boom that started in the region in 2003-04. The launch of Metro rail, growth of high-rise residential societies in Greater Faridabad, the project to expand the national highway to six lanes, construction of the Badarpur flyover, concretisation of roads, new bypass project and the inclusion of Faridabad in the Smart City Programme have perhaps made it stand in the frontline. The issues of pollution, lack of basic amenities, poor transportation and traffic congestion expose the slow pace of development of Faridabad, however,” says Varun Sheokand, a social activist.
Smart City project
The Rs 2,601-crore Smart City project is touted as a game changer for Faridabad. Though it will be limited to only 1,267 acres, covering just a handful of sectors or colonies in the city, it is expected to have a positive impact on other parts as well. Officials claim that the gains of infrastructure development will also pass onto remaining areas under the Pan City concept as finances are made available for it under the public and private participation (PPP) mode. The 69 subprojects of the Smart City project (launched in May 2016) are expected to be completed within next three years.
Faridabad is the most populous and largest city in Haryana. It is a leading industrial centre and is situated in the National Capital Region (NCR), bordering New Delhi. It is one of the major satellite cities of Delhi and is located 284 km south of Chandigarh. The Yamuna forms the eastern district boundary with Uttar Pradesh. The Union Government included Faridabad city in the second list of the Smart City Programme on May 24, 2016.
8th fastest growing city
Faridabad has been described as the eighth fastest growing city in the world and the third fastest in India by the City Mayors Foundation survey. The newly developed residential and industrial parts of Faridabad (Sectors 66 to 89) between the Agra canal and the Yamuna are commonly referred to as Greater Faridabad. The area is being developed as a self-sustained sub-city with wide roads, tall buildings, malls, educational institutions, and health and commercial centres. Sectors 66 to 74 are meant for industries, while Sectors 75 to 89 are residential areas.
Faridabad is a major industrial hub of Haryana. Fifty per cent of income tax collected in Haryana comes from Faridabad and Gurugram. Faridabad is famous for henna production, while tractors, motorcycles, switch gears, refrigerators, shoes, tyres and garments constitute its primary industrial products.
Canals turn into open sewers
The Agra and Gurugram irrigation canals passing through the city have turned into open sewers as filth and sewage are being dumped into them right at the point of their origin. It is impossible to stand on the banks of the canals for even five minutes in the morning or in the evening. Though the civic authorities make claims of having made the city free from open defecation and stray cattle, the ground reality is to the contrary. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been successful only on paper, as the city roads are still littered with garbage and drains are choked with filth and waste. The announcement to spend Rs 50 lakh just to clean drains seems to have lost its relevance in the light of improper garbage disposal. The city was to be the first to go for power generation from garbage but the project is still under construction. The decision to outsource garbage collection and disposal to a foreign company as part of the power project has led to a tussle between the civic body and the employees’ union, which often goes on strike, causing inconvenience to residents.
Faridabad neglected
The government preference for the Maruti plant to come up in Gurugram acted as a catalyst for its sharp growth while Faridabad was neglected. The availability of plenty of land in Gurugram in comparison to Faridabad and its proximity to the international airport made builders and companies shift base there. — AK Gaur, entrepreneur
Govt gave preference to Gurugram
Be it the first expressway or Metro rail connectivity, the state and Central governments gave preference to Gurugram, as influential persons in power had links or some kind of interest in development there. —Satinder Singh, retired defence officer based at Faridabad
