Urbanisation in India is in an “utter mess” and the country has not created new truly livable cities at the scale required for its growing population and the way people are inhailing toxic air is not living life... says chairman emeritus, DLF.
He bluntly points out that Indian cities are expanding in a chaotic, unplanned manner, driven by short-sighted planning.
Interestingly, he goes a step further on Gurugram, attributing its infra mess to a “nexus between crooked builders, town planners, bureaucrats and politicians.”
Importantly he specifically pointed out the high AQI levels in NCR these days and contrasts them with significantly lower AQI in conflict-hit regions like Israel and Iran, arguing that even kids are inhaling pollution here, and this is not what living a life is.
So then the obvious question, why are people still buying Rs. 100cr+ ultra-luxury or even 5cr+ homes here?
This isn’t a new argument, have seen multiple times people had been questioning about the crumbling livability in big cities. Now the same concern is coming from one of the biggest developer in the country.
Maybe he understands what lies ahead... the next big constraint on premium real estate growth won’t be inside the project, but outside it.
The external ecosystem... air quality, basic infra, overall livability... is becoming harder to ignore, and something Rs. 100 or even Rs. 1000cr homes cannot insulate against even in best of the gated societies.
And that’s the core point, he’s right.
Because, "this is not life" people deserve after paying crores to live in an urban mess.