K P Singh, the chairman emeritus of DLF, retains a razor-sharp memory. Sitting under a massive MF Hussain painting at his Lutyens Delhi home, the 95-year-old former Army officer, who turned around the fortunes of DLF, a company set up by his father-in-law, remembers and rues why Gurgaon — except Phase V — has not turned out the way it was envisaged.
Given the massive economic growth India is witnessing, he calls for “thinking big” to create a Chicago-sized city in India every year. The man, who did not have funds when he started building Gurgaon, says govts acquiring and auctioning land the Noida way for infra development and urbanisation is the only way going forward. He spoke to TOI ahead of the launch of his co-authored biography, which was released on Thursday. Excerpts:
Gurgaon is seen as an example of urban failure. It didn’t turn out to be as you had imagined. Can the problems there be fixed?Gurgaon was not envisaged as it has come out to be. It was supposed to be a high grade, green city. There was to be a green buffer between the two cities to stop urban sprawl. DLF had offered to make a 16-lane world class highway on govt land and hand it free of cost to them. In return, we were to be allowed to plan Gurgaon as it was envisaged to be. Alas, both did not happen. But in phase V, we could get what we wanted and the development is very different and good. That is a good example of what is required. The past can’t be undone.
Roads need to be wider and single or double tier, like Bangkok. I am amazed why Delhi-Gurgaon road is not elevated. I just read a report (by TOI) about the commute from Delhi to Gurgaon being longer than a flight from Delhi to Mumbai.
What ails urbanisation in India, given the state of our cities?Urbanisation is not among the sectors of the economy we are today proud of like industry, medicine or education. The fundamental defect in India is that the entire master planning is wrong. And it became wrong after 1958. The dictum then was to think small, manage shortages. So, industries had licences, output had a ceiling. Urban development suffers from a small-scale mindset. We need to think big and create surpluses.