News: ’Build First, Fix Later’: Gurugram’s Infrastructure Gap-20-02-2026
Sidharth Chowdhry, a DLF Phase 2 resident and managing director of Dalcore, says Gurugram’s real estate boom has outrun its infrastructure planning.
A civil engineer, he has been visiting from Delhi since 1951, when the town had one main road. To see a relative in Chakkarpur he parked there and walked through fields. The fields have given way to towers, he said, but the planning mindset has not kept up.
Chowdhry moved to Gurugram 23 years ago after working in the US, the Middle East, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. He holds a Master’s in Structural Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a civil engineering degree from BITS Pilani.
Development is visible but infrastructure is not, he said. Premium projects line one main spine while internal roads, drainage, sewerage and power in many sectors are inadequate.
In the cities where he has worked, no housing project may function until roads, water, sewerage and electricity are planned and executed. Gurugram should measure itself against planned cities where infrastructure comes before construction, or risk remaining a city of impressive buildings on fragile foundations.
He urged closer coordination between developers and the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran so that external development charges are actually spent on external infrastructure, at least roads and sewerage.
