Gurugram or Guttergram? Poor planning, flawed engineering bane of urban development

A tweet by a French woman, Mathilde R., living in Gurugram, has hit the image of the Millennium City, which provides nearly 70% of the total revenues to the state exchequer. Her tweet read: “#Gurgaon has become the hellish version of an adventure park. If you dare to step out of your home, you can try to walk through sewage and people's poop, die on the road trying to make your way out of your streets, or end up electrocuted while you are coming back from work and you have no other choice than crossing a river full of shit, created by non-existent drains. Remember, the money is used for someone else’s castle. Or maybe for the future Disneyland?”

This harsh reality is, in fact, a reflection of the state of urban Haryana. Towns, including Panipat, Sonepat and Hisar, and even smaller ones like Bhiwani, Bawani Khera and Barwala, face the same problem. In the absence of an efficient waste management system, garbage litters every corner of urban Haryana.

However, a deeper look at the issue reveals that the problem lies in the flawed engineering and urban development. It is shocking how a stormwater drain on Delhi Road, with uneven levels and sharp turns, leaves major parts of Hisar submerged after every rain. Similarly, flawed planning turns roads in Gurugram into lakes, with thousands of vehicles stuck every time it pours.

Experts maintain that piecemeal planning has left Gurugram and other towns writhing in pain from flooding, blocked sewerage, crowded public places, etc. A retired Chief Engineer of the Irrigation Department, CB Sheoran, commented, “Integrated, inclusive planning that caters to overall development is missing in Haryana.”

It was a Tohana (then part of Hisar district) resident, Rai Bahadur Kanwar Sain Gupta, who is credited with transforming the irrigation landscape of northwestern India. A graduate of Thomason College (now IIT-Roorkee), he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contributions. But his successors in urban planning seem to have failed Haryana.

“A well-knit network of contractors, politicians, and officers is infallible—while the entire infrastructure has fallen to pieces,” remarked a senior official, summarising the state of urban civic infrastructure, particularly in Gurugram.

Gurugram city, despite receiving over Rs 1,800 crore for waste management, is under fire from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has issued a notice to the state on a PIL highlighting the “abysmal” civic conditions earlier this month. The court’s intervention comes at a time when public outrage is growing over the mismatch between budget allocations and on-ground realities.

Much of the failure is being attributed to a systemic collapse in planning, execution, and corruption. The Gurugram Municipal Corporation (MC) and Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) are flush with funds. GMDA has a budget of Rs 2,933.56 crore for 2025-26. But these massive figures have failed to reflect in civic improvement. One reason, insiders say, is that engineering leadership is grossly mismatched. The engineering head at MC Gurugram recently was from an electrical engineering background, and GMDA’s chief engineer from a mechanical engineering background, yet both were responsible for planning and executing specialised urban civil infrastructure. “We have the money, but not the structure, not the accountability,” an official admitted.

In Hisar, a suspected example of corruption emerged over the cost and extent of drain cleaning work. The Public Health Engineering Department reportedly cleaned 34 km of drains for Rs 40 lakh, while the MC spent Rs 2 crore to clean only 32 km, raising questions about transparency.