By Vipin Agnihotri
The IT boom has turned cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune into cities of opportunities. But on the flip side, it has turned these cities into urban nightmares. Over the last 10 years, the tech boom has resulted in the creation of swank campuses, jobs and more epithets.
Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India and Hyderabad is known as India’s uber-cool Cyberabad. If experts are to be believed, the dazzling growth of these cities has not just brought in dollars and pounds but also large-scale migration, traffic jams, pollution and creaking infrastructure.
In Bangalore, serpentine traffic jams are a daily routine as thousands of code-jocks make their way to Electronics City- home to Wipro, Infosys Technologies and other tech majors. In terms of statistics around 18,000-20,000 cars trundle up and down Hosur Road, en route to Electronics City.
The city’s infrastructure is decaying across all segments. In fact, it faces a chronic power shortage of around 1,000-1,500 MW and public transportation is erratic and inadequate to say the least.
Pune’s traffic woes are pretty much identical to those in Bangalore but it also has its own sets of other problems. It is worth noting that Pune’s foul air has ‘Talibanised’ its women, who have to wrap dupattas around their faces to escape the smothering pollution. The recent study has come to the conclusion that Pune is the 13th most polluted city in the country. A World Bank report has ranked Pune as Asia’s fifth most polluted city.
According to government figures, the number of vehicles registered in Pune is growing at a rate of around 9 per cent per year and has crossed the 14-lakh mark. On the other hand, Gurgaon’s infrastructure belies its position as India’s third largest IT hub. However, lack of parking spaces, traffic jams and daily power cuts continue to challenge the city’s growth.
Compared to Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon, Hyderabad seems to be better off- at least for now. Hyderabad is in a much-better situation because it does not face issues on the utilities front.
Even better, Hyderabad is in the process of building infrastructure such as new international airport and flyovers. The only problem in Hyderabad seems to be the increase in commuting time which has been forced by a slight delay in the completion of a couple of flyovers.
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