‘The city grew fast but infrastructure lagged’

Sidharth Chowdhry highlights Gurugram's rapid growth lacks adequate infrastructure planning, urging coordination between developers and authorities for sustainable development.

Sidharth Chowdhry, a resident of DLF Phase 2, has seen Gurugram from the perspective of a professional civil engineer and as someone emotionally invested in the city’s evolution.

Sidharth Chowdhry

Chowdhry says Gurugram’s rapid real estate growth has not been matched by corresponding infrastructure planning. Having seen the city’s transformation over several decades, he believes the expansion has been uneven.

“I have been visiting Gurugram from Delhi since 1951,” he said. “There was just one main road back then. To visit a relative in Chakkarpur, I had to park my car on the main road and walk through fields. Today, those fields are gone, towers have come up but the planning mindset has not kept pace with the scale of development.”

Chowdhry, managing director of Dalcore, moved to Gurugram 23 years ago after working across the US, Middle East, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. He holds a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from BITS Pilani.

He said that while residential and commercial projects in Gurugram have grown rapidly, core infrastructure in many sectors remains inadequate.

“Development is visible, but infrastructure is not. Premium development happens along one main spine, while internal roads, drainage, sewerage and power systems in many sectors remain inadequate,” he said.

Drawing from his professional experience, he said housing projects should not operate without supporting civic systems in place.

“We should be comparing ourselves with planned cities abroad where infrastructure precedes construction, not the other way around. Without that shift, Gurugram risks remaining a city of impressive buildings sitting on fragile foundations.”

“In cities I have worked in, whether in the US or the Middle East, no housing project is allowed to function unless roads, water supply, sewerage and electricity are fully planned and executed. But here, we build first and fix later, if at all,” he said.

He stressed the need for better coordination between developers and the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), especially in ensuring that external development charges (EDC) are used for external infrastructure.

“Developers must work in close coordination with HSVP and ensure that the EDC they pay are actually used for external infrastructure, at the very least for roads and sewerage,” he said.

Chowdhry added that unless infrastructure planning keeps pace with construction, Gurugram’s growth will remain incomplete.

Sidharth Chowdhry is a resident of DLF Phase 2 and Managing Director, Dalcore