News Point: With nearly two lakh housing units coming up in Noida Extension, the area is still suffering from as basic issues as the lack of pin code.
“When I wanted to book some furniture online for my new house in Noida Extension I was exposed to the reality that this place has no official pin code. In the absence of pin code there would not be any delivery of products or courier in the region. I am feeling like I have fallen into ‘No Man’s Land’, in a foreign territory which no one wants to own,” rues Anmol Prabhakar, a home buyer.
Anmol is not the only one to face this dilemma, rather challenge, of living in a market that has no official pin code. Many of the new home buyers who have recently moved to Noida Extension are finding it tough to get their existing phone connection (even if it is already there in some other part of Noida) transferred to Noida Extension.
“Irony is that unlike some other newly carved property markets where the developers have gone berserk without any planning, here in Noida Extension we bought with full knowledge that this market has been planned and created by the government agency, Greater Noida Authority, and hence it is safer in terms of getting all the basic necessities,” says another home buyer, Nirmala Sharma.
Noida Extension realities
- No official pin code has been allocated to Noida Extension
- Different locations are using different pin codes depending on post offices of old village
- Courier, phone & Internet services affected in absence of pin code
The developers on their part maintain that these teething problems are being sorted out and soon Noida Extension will flourish as a vibrant sub-city. However, the developers or the industry bodies have thus far shied away from taking up the issue with the Greater Noida Authority in a collective manner. As a matter of fact, the CREDAI National President Geetamber Anand refused to respond to the queries sent by Track2Realty on the issue.
Nikhil Hawelia, Managing Director of Hawelia Group admits that Noida Extension needs to have a uniform pin code, as this is now one sub-city being carved out of a few villages in this part of Uttar Pradesh. According to him, it is problematic for even the developers to market their projects, as different localities of Noida Extension will have different pin codes, if it is used as per the prevalent village pin code.
“Noida Extension has been carved out of various villages and many of these villages have different pin codes. If that is used in housing projects then two neighbouring housing projects can have different pin codes. This will only add to the existing confusion. We have already urged the Greater Noida Authority to look into it,” says Hawelia.
With nearly two lakh units coming up in Noida Extension, this market is all set to be one of the largest sub-cities in this part of the world. But the residents of this newly developed residential zone are feeling an identity crisis of their location. Whether it is the delivery of goods & services, or installation of phone and Internet connection, the home buyers are struggling to find an answer.
Many of the Noida Extension residents maintain that they can cope up with the lack of social infrastructure in the vicinity and the poor public transport which is the responsibility of the concerned government agencies. But the identity confusion is crippling the basic services that they are ready to pay the price and avail.
Requesting anonymity, a representative of telecom service provider, Airtel admits that this is a unique problem that the telecom operator had not faced earlier in any other part of the country. Hence, they have no clear answer as to how to deal with it.
“Unless there is a clarity over pin code and the government clarifies whether there would be one uniform pin code or separate pin codes in region, depending upon the erstwhile pin code of villages, no telecom operator would like to invest for basic infrastructure in this market,” says the Airtel representative.
Urban planning fundamentals suggest that for a city to grow as a residential or commercial hub and to lure its potential customers, there is the need to set in place its basic infrastructure and facilities which are the factors considered pivotal in decision making. On paper there is definitely detailed planning of infrastructure, including the road connectivity network, sewage & sanitation, electrical, etc. But in reality this market is struggling with issues that are quite unique, especially for a market that has been conceptualized and created by a government agency.
By: Ravi Sinha
