I am at NCR ( national capital region ) for last one week . Virtually, Delhi is being invaded by UP from northeast & east and Haryana from south & south west Even Regions of Rajasthan like Bharatpur are recently included in the conurbation or agglomeration called NCR . You can also interpret it in another way. Delhi is making inroads into neighbouring states, enriching them and getting enriched itself in the process. Even Agra and Mathura are pushing for inclusion in NCR. Delhi has over taken Mumbai and Calcutta ( which though far behind are amongst the largest such ten urban agglomerations in the world, NCR itself being the second biggest in the list , possibly behind Tokyo- yokahoma region ). Something special about Delhi is the Delhi metro , which is the engine steering this spoke wheel growth. Already Delhi metro has gone to Gurgaon and Noida and has already reached Faridabad and Gaziabad like an invading army....nearly 50 million people reside at NCR...its interesting to note that road networks lag behind ( though far ahead of Kerala ) often traffic stopping not only at signals, but very patiently for hesitant gomathas at medians too. The bye pass high ways are of course excellent . Rest is dust and concrete jungles. Delhi is already one of the most polluted cities and during recent Deepavali celebrations , it reached an all time high . Neither the lt governor, nor the public gave any attention to Harshavardhans ( himself an ENT surgeon ) call to reduce noise pollution. Air was awash with respirable particles. Nitrogen level was an all time high. Except for well looked after Central Lutyens Delhi, the new Inclusions of NCR with dozens of major factories and tens of thousands of small scale industries have poor quality of life, Faridabad being the worst affected. Gurgaon is meanwhile fast becoming or have already become Indias Hong Kong which did not collapse even during recession, the whole city built upon the bubble of black money from politicians , with no concern for the poor or even middle class. A country and its people who have scant respect for rule of law can not improve . Back in Kerala, we are still doing unending rounds of discussion on whether our NH should be 30 ft or 45 ft. At least kochi, Alwaye, Chertala stretch with extension to Perumbavoor and Trippoonithura to east , had the potential of an urban agglomeration. But where is the infrastructure ? From Alwaye or nedumbassery to kochi, it can take anything from one to 2 hours by road. Even Metro is not going to air port. Our metro has already abandoned the proposed Trippoonithura section. We are doomed to drown in problems created by our short sighted politicians, bureaucrats and ourselves... I think we are generally happy with our news channels and what they serve us for 24 hours a day ....they themselves serve us the problem and solution ( see the recent Jaihind TV scoop on the hotel in Calicut - I dont know whether it is true or false- and the remedy to it by yuvaMOORCHA again under live TV coverage .
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 13:18:18 +0000
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