If the far-flung towns in National Capital Region (NCR) like Khurja, Bulandshahr, or for that matter Palwal or Alwar, failed to emerge as attractive destinations for commercial and residential realty majors of Delhi in the last couple of decades, the single most important reason has been for a lack of fast-track connectivity to the capital.
While in the past, development of residential zones have been the driving force behind creating road connectivity, now this is changing. The roads development plans and connectivity is deciding the way future cities are emerging, or are likely to come up. The best examples are the twin expressways Kundli-Manesar-Palwal and Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal each 135km, coming up around Delhi.
Though the greenfield expressways were planned to reduce congestion on Delhi roads, now these two road networks are emerging as the biggest contributors to residential and commercial developments around these corridors.
KMP ExpresswayKundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway is set to prove the single major catalyst of both residential and commercial development in Haryana. Also known as Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), it is already under construction. With new-theme industrial townships planned along this 135-km stretch, indicators are clear that the corridor will see major residential development in the next few years.
Already, major developers like TDI, Parsvnath, Ansals, Omaxe have started coming up with mega-residential and commercial projects close to the expressway to cater to future needs. Haryana government officials maintain they have planned a cluster of 13 theme-cities along the expressway, and the number will increase with growth in demand.
Properties, not just in Delhi but also in its immediate neighbourhood towns, are going out of the reach of middle class. Moreover, with employment opportunities expected to be available in these new industrial cities, people will prefer to shift to these areas. The quality of life and the concept of walk-to-work will play key role in the major shift of urban population to these regions, said a government officials. Haryana government will notify land patches earmarked for these future cities as controlled areas for specific use. These proposed theme cities include a cyber city, a bio-science city, a medical city, fashion cities, entertainment cities and leisure cities.
The world trade city will be developed on 260 hectare, fashion city on 220 hectare, entertainment city on 140 hectare, leather city on 280 hectare and the leisure city on 750 hectare. The world trade city will have a financial hub with soft trading facilities and will be networked with IT facilities. Similarly, the fashion city will be equipped with technology and vocational centres, besides having institutions for apparel manufacturing, fabric design, R&D institutions, jewellery and gems workshop.
The entertainment city would have hotels, motels, restaurants, shopping malls and multiplexes, facilities for concerts and musical programmes and nightclubs. The leather city is proposed to come up near Nuh in Mewat district on the Gurgaon-Alwar road. Similarly, Sonepat district will get specialized facilities like a Rajeev Gandhi Education City and a Sonepat-Kundli multifunctional-urban complex.
This apart, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has started work on an industrial-model township at Kharkhoda on the lines of Manesar. A dry port city is slated to come up at Palwal. State government officials said the development of these theme cities is a part of the plan to develop the area along KMP Expressway as a global corridor. All these towns are expected to come up when the expressway becomes functional. Officials said the spatial plan of the corridor will be developed around a number of specialized economic activities and each activity is envisaged to be the focus of a self-sustaining cluster city.
Sources said that the threshold population required for sustaining physical and social infrastructure would govern the development of cluster cities. Along the expressway corridor, infrastructure facilities on a par with international standards will be created, officials said. This will not only boost investor confidence but also provide world-class living experience.
There will be a number of specialised economic activities in this corridor, making it growth centric. Independent townships and cities, with focus on a specialized economic activity like manufacturing, power, etc, have been envisaged. A number of such cluster cities, integrated under one umbrella, will provide the overall spatial form of the global urban corridor. In between these nodes, recreational, forest and green area will be developed, an official said.
To boost industrial development along the corridor, specialized industrial estates have been planned at strategic locations, including a food park at Kundli in Sonipat, gems and jewellery park at Udyog Vihar in Gurgaon, and two apparel parks, one in Gurgaon and another at Barhi in Sonipat, besides footwear and leather-garments parks at Bahadurgarh. This industrial development will also boost residential demand in the region.
The 100 metre-wide expressways will have a green belt of 100 metres on both sides. Intersecting four existing national highways and key railway lines, the expressway will ensure better connectivity across NCR. It will provide faster access to the international and domestic airports at Delhi for cities in Haryana, bypassing Delhi roads. Haryana government has now invited local landowners to partner in this major development project.
Any person having 50 acres or more of land in the amenity zone of KMP global corridor will be permitted to take up recreational projects like amusement parks and golf courses. Two kilometers on both sides of the KMP global corridor will be treated as amenity zone in which some theme cities are proposed to be developed, said Rajendra Kataria, Gurgaons deputy commissioner.
In order to plan and regulate development along the expressway, a two kilometer belt on either side has been declared as controlled area under the provisions of Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restrictions of Unregulated Development Act 1963. These controlled areas have been integrated with the existing controlled areas, which were declared around the urban centres of the six districts.
Country's biggest exhibition-cum-exposition ground
The KMP Expressway is also likely to get the country's largest exhibition-cum-exposition ground, almost double the size of Pragati Maidan. The complex, planned over 200 acres, will be located at Pachgaon Chowk, close to the industrial township of Manesar in Gurgaon. The proposed site is adjacent to NH-8 and the KMP Expressway interchange.
This is one of the three early-bird projects proposed by Haryana government as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project. The proposed site will not only have huge space in the open for exhibitions along with indoor facilities, but also have hotels and retail, office, wellness and entertainment facilities. According to initial reports, the conference facility to be provided at the complex would accommodate close to 4,000 people. The development will surely bring a huge boost in the nearby regions.
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