Introduction
Gurgaon looking back thirty years ago was an economic wasteland, whose main resource was blue cows. What happened next was a modernization wave like no other that spurred rapid urbanization within the city borders. Over the last two decades, skyscrapers started to rise, shopping malls and golf courses started to pop up, and fancy cars can be seen every street corner. Today, Gurgaon has the highest number of professionals per square inch of the country, generating the third highest per capita income. Even with the major economic success, all the chrome buildings and neon signs cannot hide the main issues the city is facing, which is a lack of water.
The Transformation of Gurgaon
The state of Haryana in 1979 spilt an area outside of New Delhi into two new districts. One being Faridabad, which had an active city, government and infrastructure. The other half was Gurgaon, which had blue cows, rocky soil, and no infrastructure. Little did everyone know, that Gurgaon would surpass Faridabad as the economic epi-center of the region.
In the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s multinational corporations began arriving to take advantage of India’s emerging outsourcing industry. What outsourcing required was space and room to grow. New Delhi, being the countries capital and having the largest population was the first choice. As New Delhi, began to become overpopulated and rent prices started to sky rocket, the city of Gurgaon started to get attention. Located 15 miles south of New Delhi and near an international airport the area seemed promising.
In 1997, Jack Welch of General Electric opened their first operation in New Delhi. In turn this open a flood gate of companies coming through the doors. Today, almost half the Fortune 500 companies have offices in Gurgaon.
During the past decade alone, Gurgaon has built nearly 30 million square feet of commercial space, had a 70 percent growth rate, and is now considered the commercial hub of India. The 1.5 million population and growing with the wave of modernization of the area.
Local Government of Gurgaon:
In an effort to spur the transformation of the region, the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act was passed. The main purpose of this act to attract private developers to the region with added incentives. And as land was scoped for development the idea of the land was intended to be used for argulatory developments. Private developers knowing the lack government oversight of the region bgan filing for Change of Land certificates with the local town government. This allowed the land to be utilized for commercial use.