For years, Noida was a less preferred location compared to Delhi and Gurugram. Crime, Corruption, inaccessibility, and distance, were big, big deterrents. Regardless, Noida has an advantage that will outlast the glamour of other NCT areas: it’s a planned city. So whereas Gurugram mushroomed like a wild growing ginger plant and Delhi is swamped by a never-ending population explosion, Noida, with its structured planning and sustainable model is the “lambe race ka ghoda”.
Just a few months ago, as Delhi and Gurugram drowned in monsoon floods, Noida remained almost entirely unaffected.
But well begun is only half done. As the population expands exponentially, civic amenities are increasingly strained. The residents complain constantly of sewer overflow and choked drains due to poor cleaning and gradient issues. The Noida Authority enlisted an expert agency to redesign the drainage and sewage network. And therein lays the rub. A resident of Sector 40 chronicled in Samvada, the woes of relaying sewage lines. Broken ramps, ruptured water pipes, snapped communication lines. Dumps of mud and sludge strewn throughout the Sector.
Some such similar endeavour was attempted in A Block, Sector 31, about the stormwater drains and laying of water permeable bricks, along the common areas and pedestrian paths. Inevitably, it became a case of Authority proposes, Resident disposes. Both stormwater and sewer drains depend on 2 unalterable necessities -continuity and gradient. Noida Authority has blindly permitted ramps to be constructed without enforcing accessibility to the drains. They have turned Nelson’s eye to the intrusion of illegal drains from khasras into both stormwater drains and sewage lines. Newly constructed houses seem to enjoy a perverse pleasure in creating monstrously high ramps intruding into common areas, leaving no space for footpaths. Any attempt to rectify the situation can only be achieved by taking a strong unequivocal stand and ruthless implementation, but Noida Authority has assumed an impotency that is appalling. Everything that should not be done is being done. A simple example is the case of ignoring the sill height of internal parking to exceed 7 feet. Does it require Confucius to understand that the internal parking areas will be converted into rooms, and cars will again be parked on the roads?
So half-done will soon become quite undone; myopic residents who cannot see the big picture, corrupt officials who happily pocket a small amount for their all-important signatures. An indifferent management and various small-time interests are combined to make Noida a lost dream.
