The origin of the city's name is steeped in Hindu mythology. Legend has it that Gurgaon is the ancestral village of Guru Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In Sanskrit, Guru means teacher, which in this case refers to Dronacharya and Gram means village. According to Hindu mythology, the village was gifted by the Pandavas and Kauravas to Sage Dronacharya, the son of Sage Bhardwaj, and was therefore known as guru-gram. Over time the colloquial term gaon (which also means village in Prakrit) was substituted for gram and the name Gurgaon emerged. Population: 7, 00, 000 (Estimated as on 2010)
About City Index:
Gurgaon is the sixth largest city of India and is the industrial and financial center of of state of Haryana. Gurgaon is one of Delhi's four major satellite cities and is part of the National Capital Region of India. Gurgaon is regarded as the best city in India to work and the best city in India to live, according to a survey by Business Today magazine.Gurgaon is also the only Indian city to be able to successfully have distributed electric connections to all households. However, because of its heavy vehicular traffic and inefficient public transportation apart from Delhi Metro, Gurgaon ranks 11 amongst Indian cities on the "Life after Work" index of Business Today. Gurgaon has the 3rd highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Mumbai. Over the past 10 years the city has undergone rapid development and construction. A wave of multinational companies choose to locate their operations in Gurgaon after GE did so in 1997. This has made Gurgaon the call centre capital of the world, and an important financial center of India
Composition of Gurgaon District:
Gurgaon district comprises of five blocks Badshahpur, Pataudi, Sohna, Gurgaon and Farrukhnagar. On its north, it is bounded by the district of Jhajjar and the Union Territory of Delhi. Faridabad district lies to its east. On its south, the district shares boundaries with the district of Mewat. To its west lies the district of Rewari and the State of Rajasthan. Gurgaon city is situated at edge of Aravali mountain ranges. Greatest length of district is around 21 km (13 mi) and the greatest breadth is 27 km (17 miles).
Protected Area:
The Sultanpur National Park, located about 15 km from the centre of the city, is a protected migratory bird sanctuary for the Sarus Crane, Indian Peafowl, Eurasian Wigeon and other birds.
EXPRESSWAY- National Highway No-8An eight lane expressway runs between Delhi and Gurgaon and connects to NH8 (Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai national highway). The expressway connects to Dhaula Kuan in Delhi over a distance of 28 kilometres (17 mi). Buses connect Gurgaon bus station to Delhi and to cities and towns in Haryana and neighbouring states. The expressway is being extended to Jaipur 225.6 kilometres (140.2 mi) and will be completed in June 2011.
The main bus depot of the city connects to neighboring towns including Delhi, Jaipur, Alwar and Chandigarh. There are also buses to Uttar Pradesh, Jammu, Faridabad, Dharuhera and others. Recently, the Gurgaon administration and Haryana Roadways have bought a number of Ashok Leyland low floor buses and started some new city bus service routes in New Gurgaon that connect MG Road to the many business parks like DLF City and Unitech International Business Park. The Delhi Transport Corporation also runs buses on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. Shared auto-rickshaws are also a very common, cheap and convenient means of transport in Gurgaon.
Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (DMICDC), the special purpose vehicle (SPV) floated by the government of India for implementing the DMIC projects, had appointed the consultant for undertaking a study on the master plan for the Manesar-Bawal Investment Region (MBIR) and undertaking pre-feasibility studies for two early bird projects. Haryana government had identified four Early Bird Projects to be implemented as a pilot initiative within the DMIC region, which includes Mass Rapid Transportation System between Gurgaon-Manesar-Bawal, exhibition-cum-convention centre, integrated multi-modal logistics hub and new passenger rail link. The first phase of the project is likely to be completed by 2012 with an estimated $90 billion (Rs 4, 23, 000 Crore) to be invested to develop infrastructure in the investment regions.
Reliance 25,000-acre SEZ
Maruti Suzuki plant in Gurgaon Reliance Ventures, a group company of India’s largest private sector company Reliance Industries, and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HSIIDC), signed a joint venture to set up a multi-product special economic zone in Gurgaon. At an investment of Rs 40,000, the project will be India’s largest SEZ spread over 25,000 acres. It will be implemented by a 90:10 joint venture company, Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd. Reliance and HSIIDC will have directors in a ratio of 2:1 on the board of the joint venture company.
After the truce between the Ambani brothers the new and old business seems to be coming back on track. RIL is planning to kick-start its SEZ plan in Gurgaon and Jhajjar with around Rs 3000 Crore being pumped in. Agreements are virtually done with Japanese and Korean companies like Panasonic and Mitsui for setting up large manufacturing and logistics facilities in the Gurgaon SEZ and estimated to create create 1.5 million jobs.
New Industrial Area of Gurgaon: IMT Manesar
HSIDC has acquired 1736 acres land at Manesar to set up the industrial Model Township in 2006. After taking over the possession of the land, HSIDC has allotted about 110 acres land to vendors of MUL, Gurgaon and others in sector-3. The IMT is situated on the National Highway No.8 known as Delhi-Jaipur highway and is extremely well-connected to Delhi. The international airport is just 32 km away, while Connaught Place is 45 km. It takes about an hour and a half to reach Connaught Place. Besides the location, the other attractive feature of Manesar is that it has the best infrastructure and is far ahead of other industrial townships in this respect. The infrastructure is in place and operational and internationally known companies like Agilent Technologies, Honda, Denso, Norcool, Mitsubishi Electricals, Videocon, Motorola, Samsung, Frigo Glass, Alcatel-Lucent India Ltd, Johnson Matthey (India) Pvt Ltd, Baxter India and the prestigious Automobile Research Association of India are already operational here.
Urbanisation & Growth:
Most of the residents in Gurgaon work in the city's booming BPO and KPO industries. Initially a small farming village located southwest of Delhi, Gurgaon saw a massive increase in its population and economy after the real estate developer, DLF Group, bought farms owned by local people and started developing housing societies. Many residential parts of Gurgaon are located within a numbered DLF "Phase". In Hindu and Mughal times the city was largely made up of the temples and forts which were used as a barrier to secure Delhi. The present city of Gurgaon can be considered the metropolitan area encompassing every settlement around the original city, and expanding even further with the establishment of new neighborhoods and districts.
Real Estate Hub:
DLF City Phase III, Cyber Greens Private real estate companies such as DLF Universal, Unitech Group and others constructed build world-class offices in Gurgaon, near Delhi Airport and National Highway 8 and then leased them to Fortune 500 and Indian companies at rates cheaper than Bangalore or Mumbai. The rapid urbanization resulted in some farmers in Gurgaon becoming millionaires when they sold their land to private property developers. The increased Change of Land Use fees and License Fees levied by the Haryana government earned thousands of crore Rupees in taxes from property developers. Retail is another big industry in Gurgaon, where there are more than 45 malls, including the biggest, Ambience Mall, giving Gurgaon the 3rd highest number of malls in any Indian city?
Upcoming areas in gurgaon developed by HUDA and Private Developers are, Sohna Road, Pataudi road, Badshahpur, Dharuhera and Manesar etc. One of the attractions for international companies to operate factories and offices in Gurgaon is near Delhi Airport. 100% of households have electricity. Though Gurgaon has provided 100% Electricity, the city people are frustrated by high costs, frequent cuts & low voltage problems. Some people have started fleeing to the neighboring Delhi for a better standard of Living. Most of the official complexes and societies are running on Diesel gensets. Summer months are worst in Gurgaon with no proper water & electricity supplies.
Private real-estate giants, such as Emaar MGF Group, DLF Limited and Unitech Group, and many others have built gated communities in Gurgaon, which have 24x7 water and security although electricity is a major concern, owing to 7–8 hours of power cuts which leads to high diesel costs and polution. These gated complexes range from apartment complexes to integrated mini-cities such as DLF City, Nirvana Country and Suncity. In the aftermath of the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, private companies are now hiring armed security guards and CISF officers.
Caste groups
Guraon is home to diverse caste groups such as Jats, Yadav/Ahirs, Saini, Gujjars resettled west Punjabis and Meos, etc Gurgaon was home to a significant Muslim population before partition; most were settled here after the bloody 1857 War of Independence from Delhi and Northwestern Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). They migrated to Pakistan after partition (though some remained in the Patuadi and Firozpur Jhirka states); later on thousands of Punjabis (Hindu immigrants from Pakistan's Punjab) who came here after partition of the country in 1947 made their home here, but today it is populated by people from across the globe. Courtesy: ApartmentsGurgaon.In
The main bus depot of the city connects to neighboring towns including Delhi, Jaipur, Alwar and Chandigarh. There are also buses to Uttar Pradesh, Jammu, Faridabad, Dharuhera and others. Recently, the Gurgaon administration and Haryana Roadways have bought a number of Ashok Leyland low floor buses and started some new city bus service routes in New Gurgaon that connect MG Road to the many business parks like DLF City and Unitech International Business Park. The Delhi Transport Corporation also runs buses on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. Shared auto-rickshaws are also a very common, cheap and convenient means of transport in Gurgaon.
