Re-imagining Post-industrial Cities: Exploring Newer Identities in Faridabad, Haryana

Abstract

Smart growth is a new urbanism which promotes transit-oriented development to enhance the overall economic efficiency. Due to unruly urbanization, this approach emerges as a solution to build and maintain our towns and cities in a better way. The present paper tries to interrogate the intemperate urbanization and related issues as well as re-imaging Faridabad city towards smart growth approach and reconstruct newer fangled identities. This industrial city was once upon a time recognised as ‘Manchester of India’, being part of the National Capital Region, this metropolitan city experienced 13-fold increase in its level of urbanization since 1951. It faces challenges like accumulation of garbage, traffic congestion, deteriorating roads, pollution, and a strain on civic supplies like water, drainage and electricity. Globalization acts as a catalyst in reconstructing the city. In the post-industrial era, a decline in work-force participation rate over the decades is observed, due to the change in the economic character, from being predominantly primary and secondary, to tertiary and quaternary now. In real estate sector, it has launched its dream project ‘Greater Faridabad’; it is now trying to attract IT as well as Biotech sectors so that international flow will support this city to revive again. Through various infrastructural projects and proposed Metrorail project between Gurgaon and Faridabad, this city will have world class infrastructure. This city is on a drive of smart growth.

Since it has taken more than 5000 years to arrive at even a partial understanding of the city’s nature and drama, it may require an even longer period to exhaust the city’s still unrealized potentialities

(Mumford 1961).