Growing in Delhi’s Shadow
Ghaziabad is poised to be the next Gurgaon if its infrastructure improves
Despite being in the National Capital Region, Ghaziabad has struggled to match the growth and development of Delhi’s other satellite towns, Noida and Gurgaon, in large part due to nightmarish traffic, particularly around the Hindon river and Air Force base. Of late, however, investment in infrastructure, growing interest of IT professionals and retirees, and lower realty prices have left Ghaziabad poised to become the next residential hub of NCR.
Ghaziabad’s lure is enhanced by its strategic location: It is 45 km from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and well connected to Noida, Hapur, Modinagar, Bulandshahar, Meerut, Saharanpur by national highways 24, 58, and 91. It is laid along the metro line from Vaishali to Anand Vihar as well as the upcoming line from Dilshad Garden to Ghaziabad Bus Depot. Ghaziabad has long been a manufacturing hub; it houses over 14,000 factories that employ nearly 1.4 million people and have a combined turnover of Rs 3,000 crore. Now, engineering and management institutions such as IMT, KITE, and ABIS are setting up shop. It is to cater to the mid-rung professionals working in these factories and institutions as well as in IT/ITES companies in Noida and Delhi that affordable housing projects have sprung up.
For a long time after townships began to come up in Ghaziabad in the late 1980’s, affordable housing projects were concentrated in Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara. They are now expanding into Crossings Republik, Rajnagar Extension and Meerut Road. Saviour Iris has 2 BHK flats at Crossings Republik for Rs 36 lakh. Prices in Supertech’s Livingston complex in the same area start from Rs 24 lakh. Panchsheel Builder’s Euro Apartment at Rajendra Nagar boasts “extremely smooth life with shopping centres, schools, hospitals and cinema halls in the vicinity”. Their flats start from Rs 2,500 per sq ft.
Despite this growth, Ghaziabad may yet lose out as an attractive affordable housing destination if it fails to effectively sort out its traffic mess.