Gurugram has lost 500 acres of prime land to squatters

In the past year, commuting in Gurugram has improved significantly because several flyovers and underpasses have opened. But encroachments are steadily eating away our public places, slowing us down. What can we do to fix this? The first part of a TOI series
This happens in Delhi, too.” It’s something we hear often in the city, whether we are struggling to drive between cars parked on both sides to reach home, walk on an encroached pavement, or find our blood pressures rising during rush hour as there’s an illegal auto stand on the road and traffic has slowed to a crawl.

An illegal auto stand on the road


Even if it happens in Delhi, it does not lighten the burden of the problem for a new city like Gurugram, which should not have inherited the urban planning flaws of the capital or any other old Indian city. Take Huda City Centre, the gateway to Gurugram for metro passengers, as an example. It’s a junction that represents the heart of the city but it would be a lucky day when you passed through without any delay caused by scores of cars and autos waiting around the metro terminal.

A large chunk of the city’s public spaces has fallen to various kinds of encroachments, both in areas of common use, like roads, pavements and parks, as well as plots lying vacant and water bodies. Every day, this slows the city down, forcing us to waste precious time on roads, raising tempers and reducing productivity.

“People have encroached on the DLF3 road and are using it as their personal parking space. Even parks in the area are being used for other purposes instead of children playing in them,” says Abhishek Kandwal, an IT professional.

Collectively, estimates drawn up by government agencies suggest around 535 acres of land is under encroachment in Gurugram (385 acres in areas under MCG jurisdiction as of February 2018, and around 150 acres in areas under Huda). In terms of the total area under encroachers, this would around six Lodhi Gardens taken together.



MCG’s senior town planner Sudhir Chauhan admitted there have been several illegal constructions and encroachments over the past few years, so it was decided to develop an application to find a solution. “The Haryana Space Application Centre (HARSAC) will map the city and the team of around 30 officials will monitor the situation 24×7 from a control room,” said Chauhan, speaking of long-term plans to prevent more encroachments.
Environment expert and retired forest department official Devender Rao said, “Residential colonies and neighbourhoods are conceived and designed with tremendous amount of thought and planning. Features such as parks, corridors, water bodies and others are included for the benefit of residents and environment. But when humans interfere with these features, it is called encroachment. These encroachments seem harmless at first, but they have the potential to cause significant problems related to environment, traffic and security besides causing inconvenience to residents.”

Among all forms of encroachments that Gurugram is facing at the moment, illegal parking is perhaps the biggest menace. The number of private cars and commercial cabs that are either registered in the city or visit the city has grown exponentially over the past few years but adequate parking spaces have not been developed, leading to illegal parking all over the city. To address this problem, the state government planned multi-level parking facilities but only one has opened doors. Former municipal commissioner TL Satyaprakash had ordered aerial survey of the city to identify big chunks of vacant land to be developed for parking but the land owners did not show interest in the plan.

Slums and shanties are the second most serious problem. The state government failed to account for the migrant population that makes up the informal service sector in the Gurugram master plan, neither did it formulate any policy for them. In the meantime, Gurugram’s population has grown to 20 lakh and the demand for maids, drivers, errand runners and gardeners has gone up, bringing more people to the city to cater to these needs and earn good wages. The land mafia has seen an opportunity in this and grabbed it: they have encroached on public land, built shanties there and are renting it out to people. It’s thriving business.

So, what can we do to get our public spaces back? Over the next few days, TOI will run a series of reports in this second edition of Give Gurugram Its Due that starts today. Our reports will put the microscope on each aspect of encroachment that is affecting our lives and speak to government officials and experts to highlight possible solutions.