It was 9 AM in the morning and the repeat ring of call bell forced me to wake up. It is not easy for a journalist to leave bed so early after the occupational hazards of late night assignments. I opened the door with visible anger on my face, only to find a smiling PR guy whose smile actually made me even more angry.
A closer look at the sales methodology of the developers suggests while they exaggerate some USPs of the project, they very smartly conceal the information to make their offer look very lucrative to homebuyers.
Largely viewed in the collective consciousness as the most affordable market of Delhi-NCR, probably the authorities did no justice to this market by positioning it as yet another micro market to supplement Noida and Greater Noida. More than the controversies and the litigations, the positioning of the market has been a challenge.
Urban planning experts believe this is a much deeper question because it is not just about the existing urban centres but also about the way urbanisation is eventually going to happen in this country. As per the UN statistics the urban population of 40 crore in India would be 60 crore in less than 20 years of time. It clearly suggests that the existing cities won’t be able to fit in this additional 20 crore population, whether indigenous or migrants.
The supply of quality housing even today is confined to eight key cities. It is not that the new cities are not coming up, but neither the investors nor even the end users want to buy a house in Tier II cities today. The dream and aspiration is always Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune kind of life.
‘Location, Location & Location’ has been the tried and tested format of success in the Indian real estate. It has been the best calling card for the developers. Many even assumed that if the developer has got a piece of land in any of the highly desirable locations, that itself is enough to sell the project.
Are the CBDs really losing out as the benchmark of economic activity in the major cities of India? Well, if only Gurgaon business destinations as against Connaught Place or Nehru Place in Delhi-NCR are any indication, or if only BKC and Navi Mumbai as against Nariman Point in Mumbai is any indication, then the CBDs have lost a significant ground by all means of reputation and economic scale.
It is the roll out of the policies by the respective urban bodies that have been behind the BKC emerging as a case study of urbanisation with booming economy while Noida ending up as a ghost city sitting over piles of unsold housing stock. Both the markets nevertheless had the tremendous potential in its early stage of inception.
The proposed Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) also promises to change the Faridabad landscape opening floodgates of opportunity. The DMIC stretch that touches Faridabad-Palwal is poised to open floodgates of economic opportunities with world class infrastructure at the doorsteps of Faridabad.
India definitely has to do a lot of catching up as far as smart urban governance and the participation of citizens are concerned. Failing to involve the citizens, the smart cities will only end up having state-of-the-art infrastructure and poor follow-up leading to smart urban chaos for the future.