HOLD UP. I was actually doing a case study of Gurgaon (yes, like IN Gurgaon) in early March as part of an Urban Studies study-abroad program. My study focused on the broad topic of consumerism, and as for the malls cited above - half of them are largely empty, because a city of that small (for India) size simply cannot support enough stores to fill them all. Many of the luxury apartments in the area are vacant, though sold, bought as a real estate investment by European businesspeople and Indian expatriates. As for the “private sector providing transportation, utilities, etc.,” the group that studied housing termed these Gurgaon settlements “pods” because they are physically seperate from the “unpleasantness” of the city - away from the unwashed masses that BUILT everything in Gurgaon, away from the severe water shortage in that part of India, away from the pollution caused by development gone viral with no governmental environmental protections.
Interesting that the survey noted above was conducted by Business Today - I wonder how many of the people answering it actual live in Gurgaon anything close to full time? Every one of the five case studies had serious concerns about Gurgaon’s longtime viability as a city… to say that it is “thriving” is a bit of a stretch, though I suppose that depends on your definition of the word.
↧
seriouslyamerica: India’s Voluntary City HOLD UP. I was actually doing a case study of Gurgaon...
↧