NOIDA: Despite the inclusion of five districts of western Uttar Pradesh in the NCR, there has been lop-sided development as far as the entire region is concerned. Though Gautam Buddh Nagar, comprising Noida and Greater Noida, has seen rapid strides in development, the neighbouring district of Ghaziabad has been slow to catch up with progress. Meerut, Hapur and Bulandshahr, the other UP districts which are also part of the NCR, continue to remain poor cousins of the rest of the districts with the pace of urbanization yet to take off in these regions. The NCRPB and the state governments are responsible for imbalance development.

“NCRPB needs to proactive for the development of other regions. The planning board intervention will help in speeding up the development work in other areas of NCR. So far, cities like Noida, Greater Noida and Gurgaon are facing population burden. More and more people are after these regions because of development. We are also facing challenges to cater basic amenities because of high population density burden,” said Rama Raman, chairman Noida and Greater Noida authorities.

The Uttar Pradesh sub-region comprises of five districts, that is, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budha Nagar, Bulandshahr, and Baghpat together constituting about 32% (10,853 sq. kms.) of the region.

“We are also like common home buyers. We also see the feasibility and kind of return from the investment. So before investing in a region, first thing we look at the development of that region. Good development helps us in channelise cash flow steadily so that we can come up with more projects,” said Amit Gupta, MD Orris infrastructure and member Assocham.

If compared the history of UP’s NCR cities, Meerut an ancient city with settlements dating back to the Indus Valley civilization having been found in and around the area. Ghaziabad was founded by Ghaziuddin Siddiqi Feroz Jung II (1709 – 1752), The history of Bulandshahr begins even before 1200 B.C. while Gautam Buddh Nagar (comprised of Noida, Greater Noida and some part of Yamuna expressway) was formed on September 6, 1997 with by carving out the portions of Ghaziabad and Bulandshahar.

The officials admit the role of state governments suspected for poor infrastructure but they are tight-lipped on the issue as they cannot go against the governments.

Meerut development authority chief town planner Yashpal Singh blames the poor connectivity is lagging behind Meerut. “Meerut is best destination to live. In terms of climate this is the best destination to live but the poor connectivity pushing the Meerut behind. Areas like Noida and Greater Noida has dearth of land and people are agree to live on high-rises because they want basic amenities and good connectivity with Delhi,” Singh said.

Meerut Development Authority vice-chairman SK Singh hopeful that Delhi-Meerut expressway and rapid rail transit system will change the picture of Meerut. “NCRPB is the nodal agency of rapid rail project while centre and state government along with other agencies will generate fund for the project while land acquisition process is on for Delhi-Meerut expressway, which will be developed by NHAI,” said Singh.

Rapid metro rail project is also one of instance of administrative and government apathy as the project speed hampered as there is no alternative for route to divert traffic in some of the cities like Modi Nagar. People have been living here for the decades and several governments changed but not even a single government was concerned to provide another route on the arterial Modi Nagar of Western UP. Similarly, Baghpat has similar tale to tell. It has poor connectivity with Delhi via Loni. distance between Baghpat and Delhi is 40 kilometre and it takes three and four hours to cover this distance and for the same credit goes to poor condition of roads, flooded with sever water. Apart from Noida and Ghaziabad the developers also avoid investing in the other areas of UP’s NCR.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/Noida-Greater-Noida-rich-cousins-of-UPs-national-capital-region/articleshow/21396416.cms

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