Private Industrial Metropolis Lacks Sewage Infrastructure: Explore a Municipality Managed Exclusively by Commercial Entities
In the outskirts of New Delhi, approximately a half-hour's drive south, lies Gurgaon - a city that has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past few decades. Once an unexceptional town of 121,000 people, Gurgaon is now home to half of the Fortune 500 companies and boasts one of the largest shopping malls in the world.
This rapid growth can be traced back to 1991, when India's legislature passed economic reforms that opened sectors of the economy to foreign companies. The unique feature of Gurgaon is that the land around it was managed by a single agency, the chief minister's office in the state of Haryana, which allowed for fast-track approvals for office parks, luxury condominiums, five-star hotels, and golf courses.
However, Gurgaon's development model raises troubling questions. Due to the lack of a functioning municipal government, basic public services are provided by private companies within property lines. This approach has enabled rapid capital-intensive development, transforming farmland into a major technology and outsourcing hub with gleaming skyscrapers and expressways. Yet, it has also led to chronic misallocation of resources, causing severe challenges such as poor stormwater drainage, flooding, and inadequate public transportation systems.
Rajagopalan, a urban planner, proposes a solution to Gurgaon's infrastructure issues: developers could finance and build public infrastructure for larger tracts of land to make their properties more attractive to residents. He suggests that Gurgaon's developers could follow the model of Walt Disney World, which was originally a 25,000-acre wilderness bought by Disney and developed into a self-contained city with all public services.
Rajagopalan's vision of urban development raises concerns about citizen participation and social services in a privatized city. The privatization trend reduces public authorities' roles from active developers to mere project approvers, leading to skyrocketing land prices and reduced affordability, as private players prioritize profit over inclusive housing.
Gurgaon presents a dystopian world between privatized compounds, with intolerable gaps in the city's infrastructure outside of these areas. Only one-third of Gurgaon's residents are connected to the city's main sewage line. Sewage from private properties is collected in septic tanks and transported by tanker trucks to dumping grounds or rivers.
Despite these challenges, Gurgaon's privatized urban development model delivers economic dynamism and modern built environments. The privatization approach has encouraged private investment and innovation in urban spaces, leading to upscale commercial and residential property developments that attract businesses and professionals.
However, the experience urges other cities to carefully regulate private participation and enhance local government capacities to avoid similar failures. Gurgaon, with its current size of 730 square km, is large enough to hold seven Disney Worlds or seven privatized cities competing for residents. Yet, without adequate government regulation and fiscal decentralization, other Indian cities adopting similar models may face worsening inequalities, service deficits, and environmental degradation.
The governance challenges - such as weak fiscal autonomy for urban local bodies and shifting responsibilities to private developers - underline the need for a balanced partnership where governments control land pricing and ensure affordable housing. Redevelopment projects elsewhere (such as in Delhi) are starting to adopt hybrid models inspired by Gurgaon’s scale but emphasize contemporary infrastructure, green building features, and community planning, suggesting lessons are being learned.
According to a United Nations estimate, India is expected to absorb another 404 million residents into its cities by 2050, which raises questions about how the country will manage urban development and prevent a complete breakdown of public services. The experience of Gurgaon serves as a cautionary example, highlighting the pitfalls of over-reliance on privatization without adequate government regulation and fiscal decentralization.
Technology plays a significant role in the modern built environments of Gurgaon, with upscale commercial and residential properties incorporating the latest innovations. This development model, however, has raised concerns about the accessibility and affordability of technology, especially for the majority of residents who lack connections to the city's main sewage line.
In the context of education and self-development, the general news from Gurgaon underscores the importance of balanced partnerships between governments and private developers. Such partnerships should prioritize contemporary infrastructure, green building features, and community planning to ensure the equitable distribution of services and prevent worsening inequalities.
