Reliance SEZ no to Gurgaon

The economic downturn has begun to affect lives everywhere and if you thought that working for a top conglomerate would spare you the recession blues, you are grossly mistaken.
India’s showcase business group Reliance Industries is so badly hit by the global financial crash that Mukesh Ambani’s SEZ in Haryana has laid off most of its staff. You have nowhere to hide, really.
Work at the much-hyped Haryana’s pride SEZ has come to a standstill. The SEZ has a staff of around 800 (around 250 permanent and 550  contracted employees).
Although Reliance executives involved with the project claimed that the company had decided to “go slow” due to the recession, SEZ sources  confirmed that work won’t resume until the recession ends.
According to company sources, a large number of employees both at the senior and junior levels have already been asked to leave. But a Reliance spokesperson disagreed. He said,  “The project has not been delayed as the company is still acquiring land for it. There is a business plan for everything and it takes a long time to implement such big projects,” he added.

Do you think recession is the sole reason behind this step taken by Reliance?

Auto-thieves hit speed-breakers in Gurgaon

Increasing incidents of vehicle thefts in the city are not only giving sleepless nights to the owners but are also sending the police into a tizzy. On an average eight vehicles, mostly from the urban areas, are stolen every day.
Despite putting in their best efforts, only 500 of the reported 2,050 cases of vehicles thefts in 2008 have been solved. That leaves 75 per cent of the cases unsolved.
The year 2007 was no better either with only 275 cases out of 1,530 cases being  solved.
Motorcycles are stolen with impunity. “If one parks one’s bike and leaves it even for 10 minutes, it is likely to be stolen, Ramesh Gupta, whose bike was stolen,” from Apna Bazar Complex, says. He had left his bike for just about 10 minutes and when he returned it was gone.
There are a number of soft targets in the city that vehicle thieves generally target. Apna Bazaar, Aap Ka Bazaar, Radha Place – all on Gurudwara road near Sabzi Mandi, Jain Mandir Chowk, Hanuman Mandir, Galleria Market in DLF city, Central Market in DLF-II, Sikanderpur Market, Vyapar Kendra at Palam Vihar, markets in Sector 14, 17, 29 and Sector 31 are considered easy targets. Cops say people don’t park the vehicles at the designated spaces and end up losing their vehicles trying to save on the parking fees.
The police might point fingers at the public but the administration is also equally to be blamed for not providing enough parking lots. For instance, Sadar Bazar in Gurgaon doesn’t have a designated parking lot due to which people are forced to leave their cars unattended.
Sumit Kuhar, ACP of DLF City, said the police are doing their best to check vehicle thefts. Galleria Market has seen a sharp decline in theft incidents after a parking lot was introduced in the market a month ago.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Dhawan said a special cell has been formed for anti-vehicle theft and policemen in both plain clothes and uniforms, have been deputed at various places to nab the miscreants.
Most of the thieves are from Mewat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the Jhajjar, Bhiwani and Hisar districts of Haryana. They are mostly illiterate and steal for a petty amount of Rs 2000 to 3000 per bike which is then sold off on the same day. The middle-men, after making certain modifications, sell the vehicles at higher prices in  far-flung areas, Anil Dhawan said.
Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal also said the thieves had a free hand as the police were busy with other commitments but now the police have tightened their network against them. The public should also cooperate and install second hidden locks in their vehicles, Mohinder Lal said.

Do you think allotment of enough parking space would solve the problem of auto theft?

Moulin Rouge on Gurgaon cheeks

So what if there’s an economic downturn, the show must go on. That’s the spirit with which Gurgaon will soon roll out what can be easily termed India’s Broadway.
With Amitabh Bachchan and film director Karan Johar having stakes in the project, it may not be long before the who’s who of entertainment join the bandwagon to give Gurgaon its share of heady nights and ‘blue suede shoes’.
The project will be a mish-mash of Sydney’s Opera House, Paris’s Moulin Rouge, Thailand’s Phuket FantaSea, Singapore’s Esplanade, London’s Broadway and India’s showbiz. Called Tourism and Entertainment Centre, this  8-acre Rs 100-crore-plus opera house is being developed at Sector 29, Gurgaon.
Wait until June 2009, and it’s party time for Delhi and nouveau-rich Gurgaon!! Top Bollywood actors and performers, their overseas ilk and wannabes will waltz you into electrifying evenings when they turn their magic on at this centre.
Great Indian Nautanki Company director Anumod Sharma said live performances by Bollywood icons and heart-throbs would be the centre’s regular feature. The opera house, with a giant auditorium and state-of-the-art equipment, will make sure that your nights at Gurgaon are never going to be the same again. The centre will seat about a 1,000 people.
There will be a slice of everything for everyone at this centre, where a gallery called ‘Little India Street’ will display Indian handicrafts and traditional products on the lines of the India International Trade Fair in Delhi.
And if you are a gourmand, you can gorge when grubby at the four restaurants here.
“The company has taken on lease an under-construction auditorium-cum-convention centre from Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)  for a monthly rent of Rs 36 lakh to develop this centre. More than two hundred engineers, architects and workers are now working at the site to put the finishing touches,” Sharma said.
 The question is: Can glitz and nautanki gel? “There are reasons to name the company Nautanki,” Sharma said. The name echoes ethos of traditional Indian culture and nautanki is still a major form of entertainment in rural India where people assemble to watch live performances, Sharma explained.
This would be a first-of-a-kind entertainment facility not only in Haryana but in the entire country, said Sharma who had hogged the limelight when he had opened India’s first state-of-the-art discotheque ‘Fire Ball’ at 32 Miles Stone Restaurant in Gurgaon in 1996.

Do you think this would change the face of the city? Does Gurgaon need more of such places for a better life?

Every step they take

In the wake of the Mumbai carnage, security of foreigners has become one of the major priorities for the Gurgaon Police. Many foreign nationals work and live here as the city houses over a hundred offices of world fortune companies, industrial units and leading BPOs.
According to Gurgaon Police commissioner Mohinder Lal around 3,000 foreigners are employed permanently in different companies in Gurgaon while twice as many frequent the city for various short-term job assignments.
Currently, around 600 foreigners from USA, 500 from Japan, 450 from United Kingdom, 200 each from Thailand and Canada, 150 from South Korea,  100 from Australia, 25 from China, 20 from Italy, 15 from Brazil and 800 foreigners from various other countries are employed in Gurgaon.
Most of the US citizens in Gurgaon work for American MNCs like Pepsi, Coca Cola, American Express, Citi Bank and Motorola. Japanese are engaged in industrial units like Maruti Suzuki, Honda and Denso while the ones from Thailand are working on Metro rail project.
The Gurgaon Police registers all foreigners who are employed in the city for a period exceeding six months with the police security branch while those who come for a short time are not registered, an officer attached with the system said.
In particular, the Gurgaon Police is keeping a strict vigil on Pakistanis. A family of four, from Pakistan is staying with their relatives at Pataudi Tehsil. The family has come to Gurgaon for a short stay to meet their relatives. Apart from them two Pakistani students are also studying in a prominent school which is closed for holidays. Both the students have gone back to their country, informed the officer. Three months ago four Pakistani students came to the city, as part of an exchange programme, for four months, the officers said.
Mewat is another adjoining district where the police are keeping a close watch as the region is a vulnerable spot and can be easily exploited by anti-national elements.
Lal asserted that the police have to be sensitive while dealing with the security of foreigners. Hotels, corporate offices and industrial units frequented by foreigners are being watched carefully, the officer said.

Are foreigners in India under threat from terrorists trying to jeopardise Indian economy?

DLF residents revolt against stink

Cricket star Yuvraj Singh on Monday led DLF City residents in a protest against rampant and illegal dumping of garbage near their homes on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road.
“The authorities should respond positively to the request of such a large number of residents and stop this illegal activity immediately. We should develop the road along the greenbelt for sports such as cycling and jogging,  along with a good and safe highway to Faridabad,” the cricketer said.
He further said a move like this would also help inculcate a culture of sports among the Gurgaon youth.
The garbage site, spread over 60 acres near the tony Phase 1 of DLF City is  protected forest land, which makes dumping there completely illegal, Ambika Aggarwal, a resident, said. 
Civic agencies like Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) and private developers are dumping more than 325 tonnes of garbage using a 100 trucks every day.
For the past two years, thousands of residents have been living with stench  emanating from the illegal garbage dump. The situation has become dangerous with the outbreak of dengue, respiratory problems and stomach infections.
Do you think there’s need for town planning rehaul?

Return of Dengue

The aedes egypti is making trouble in Gurgaon now. But interestingly it’s not the slums, but the posh colonies of the city that have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes

Dengue has once again bared its fangs, creating an alarming situation  in Gurgaon. Of a total 208 confirmed patients of dengue, 39 are being treatment in various government and private hospitals here. Other dengue patients have already been discharged.

Several of these patients, who become seriously ill are, however, are being shifted to hospitals in Delhi.

According to official sources, two people have died of dengue this summer, but unofficial sources claim that there have been four dengue deaths in Gurgaon.

“There is no need to panic as no fresh case of dengue has come to light for the last three/four days,” Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar claimed.

 

Do you think hospitals in Delhi and NCR are well-equipped to handle dengue epidemic?

End of road in Gurgaon

All Gurgaon roads lead to a jam, if not nowhere. The reason: potholes, no drainage and roads that have been washed away. The government has made many promises, none kept.

All vital roads — New Railway Road, Old Delhi Road, Sheetla Mata Road, Sector 5-Palam Vihar Road, Dundahera Road, Sohna Road, Khandsa Road, Old Railway Road, and the roads in Sectors 4, 7, 18, 23, 45, 46, 56 and 57 are in a bad shape.

The stretch opposite Sheetla Mata Hospital on New Railway Road is no better. Same is the case with the areas outside the official residence of District Session Judge, on Sheetla Mata Mandir at Khandsa Road, outside the main bus stand on Old Jail Road, near the entrance to the Industrial Development Colony (IDC) on Mehrauli Road and many other areas suffer from poor road engineering. Commuters find these areas hard to pass.

The condition of roads at five phases of DLF, Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and South City areas are also very bad.

After it rains, some roads turn into pot-holes. The traffic moves at a snail’s pace on these stretches. The highly congested roads are the worst-hit. Almost all the roads to the north of the railway crossing are in a miserable state during the monsoon.

This is not for what we are paying our taxes for! Even as the real estate prices are touching sky high, little attention is being paid to the basic amenities. Is it that we have got used to poor standard of living? How long can we go on blaming the authorities? What can be done to get the civic authorities to work?

What is the condition of your colony road? Write in to us. Better, send a picture.