Gurgaon in chaos

The moment you enter Gurgaon, you feel you have entered a different world all together. The skyline is bedecked with smart glass buildings which would enthrall you the instant you set your eyes on them. The industry here is growing at the rate of 40 per cent as against the national growth rate of 28 per cent. Gurgaon has turned into a major IT and BPO hub in recent years. High-tech and high value projects involving foreign collaboration with huge investments have come up in the area. The annual turnover in the industrial sector in the district has crossed Rs 73,500 crore, with an investment of more than Rs 18,000 crore. The city today has 475 units of large and medium scale industries, involving an investment of Rs 13,138 crore. These units provide employment to 1,76,861 people. The number of Small Scale industrial units are around 10,000 with an investment of Rs 4,867 crore and an employment capacity of 1,74,700.

But I wonder if the phrase “Millennium City” or “India’s Singapore” is a misnomer for Gurgaon. If you look beyond the glitz of the high-rises, you would notice the absence of sewer lines, the trauma of commuting on bad roads and the lack of infrastructure. Though Gurgaon has emerged as the economic capital of North India, it has not been able to keep pace with its rapid growth. There is acute water and power crisis in summers. It becomes an ordeal to commute during rains as not only are the roads flooded and blocked but the houses are also submerged in the dirty mud water. This house of commerce provides shelter to about 18 to 20 lakh people. But the real question is whether it’s feasible to live amidst such infrastructural chaos.

This time the city is hit majorly by the deadly disease of Dengue. Already, there have been 554 cases of Dengue reported along with 3 deaths. In comparison, there have been 274 dengue cases and one death in all of Delhi. The road near Malibu Towne and Mehfil Garden in Sector 47, where sewer water from houses flows onto the road, is a typical example of the conditions that are helping mosquitoes breed. Residents and businessmen have been complaining about the 1km-long stretch of stagnant water, but no steps have been taken.

"We are compelled to live in life-threatening conditions with the fear of dengue hanging over our heads. When it rains, we have to wade through knee-deep water to go past the stretch," rued Ram Kishan who runs a taxi stand near Malibu Towne.

Alarmingly, as many as 263 cases have been reported from Gurgaon's urban areas and posh colonies. Inspections carried out by officials from the National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases reported the breeding rate of Aedes mosquito (that carries the dengue virus) was alarmingly high in Gurgaon - sometimes 40% of the houses inspected were found to be breeding sites.

Gurgaon reputation as a symbol of urbanization and economical boom has already been tarnished by civic woes. It’s high time that the government took some serious action to prevent any further deterioration or else it won’t be long before we would witness empty and rotting pillars of concrete standing to get depleted.