Noida vs Gurgaon – Which City Would You Bet On

Noida and Gurgaon are both the modern cities of India and has witnessed a lot of infrastructure developments in last 10 years. Both the cities are in fact competitors of each other when it comes to developing new infrastructure such as skyscrapers, metro rail, transport facilities, entertainment and shopping facilities and few other things. Hence, it sometimes becomes difficult to choose one of these cities for investment or living purpose. But to ultimately decide which city is better of two, we will explore some key differences. Despite being so many similarities, there are lots of differences too in terms of environment, facilities and most importantly real estate market of Noida and Gurgaon.

Let’s talk the basics first

Noida which came into administrative existence in April 1976 while Gurgaon came into existence as in independent tehsile in 1861 an was a part of Punjab until Haryana born as an independent state in 1966. When it comes to the area Noida was far behind with 203 square km in comparison with Gurgaon’s 738.8 square kilometer of area but the Noida extension or Greater Noida has added much more to Noida than just the area.

Noida is located about 20 kilo meters south-east of New Delhi while Gurgaon is located at 32 km south-west of New Delhi. Gurgaon became the third highest per capita income city in India after Chandigarh and Mumbai in 2011 while Noida claims to have the highest per capita income in National Capital Region.

Preferred Destination

While Noida is witnessing to be a home to a large number of Indian and international IT and manufacturing companies, Gurgaon on the other hand has become the preferred destinations for at least half the Fortune 500 companies by October 2013.

Noida is a major hub for multinational Indian and foreign IT outsourcing firms such as Sapient, Fiserv, Headstrong, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Adobe Systems, AON Hewitt, Fujitsu, CSC, TCS, Ericsson, Dell, Sparta Consulting, EXL Service, First Flight Courier LTD, Students-Leads, IBM, Miracle, WIPRO, Patni Computers, Corbus, Accenture, Samsung etc.

India’s biggest energy and power utilities companies including Reliance Infrastructure, NTPC Limited, Tata Power, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Oil India Limited, Gas Authority of India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation, Samsung Engineering, BGR Energy Systems Ltd have their corporate offices in Noida.

On the other hand while many of the IT companies which have offices in Noida also running their operations in Gurgaon. Maurti Suzuki Private Limited was the first company that set up a manufacturing unit in the city in 1970s making cars. General Electric was the first American Brand that entered Gurgaon in 1997 and is regarded as the first foreign company in India that was established for outsourcing software work.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, IBM, American Express, Agilent Technologies, Microsoft, and Bank of America are a few to name fortune 500 companies who have chosen Gurgaon to be their Indian corporate headquarters.

Infrastructure Developments

Both cities have witnessed a tremendous growth in both residential and commercial infrastructure and demand has almost never beaten the supply except few delays due to Noida Extension land dispute which is yet to be resolved.

Gurgaon has been home to as many as 1100 residential skyscrapers with modern planning. But most of the Gurgaon lacks proper urban infrastructure with broken roads and streets that often leads to traffic jams. On the other hand Noida Infrastructure has been planned in a better way and offering wide roads, better water treatment facilities, better public transport and most importantly the basic residential facilities in sectors.

Noida follows a better approach to town management. The suburb has well laid-out residential and commercial sectors with wide roads, flyovers and under-passes and plenty of local shopping complexes in each sector.

Film City in Noida is the home to India’s top media companies including Aaj Tak, NDTV, IBN, Zee and more because of its easy and quick connectivity with the Political capital of India, New Delhi. However Gurgaon too is located to close proximity to New Delhi but does not offer that much ease of connectivity.

Residential, Shopping, Entertainment, Health and Education Facilities

When it comes to comparing the two cities in terms of what they offer to their residents, both almost scores equal. Where on one hand Greater Noida has been producing much more residential units, Gurgaon is also expanding the residential offering along the NH8 towards Bhiwadi and Badshahpur towards Sohna. However the difference in cost of living in both cities is huge, Noida offers an average 3500-4500 per square foot while cost of residential property in Gurgaon starts somewhere from 7000-8000.

Besides Jaypee, a number of other developers like Amrapali, Supertech, Gaursons, Nimbus Group, Logix group, ATS, 3C, Eldeco, Gardenia and Paras Buildtech are developing large residential projects in Noida and Greater Noida. The residential project being built by Jaypee Green in 452 acres of land in Greater Noida with 18-hole golf course at the center provides a world class residential option for top corporate honchos. Gurgaon, on the other hand, has only the DLF golf course to boast of. Projects such as Parx Laureate and Nimbus Hyde Park in Noida are competing with the most luxurious residential projects in Gurgaon.

Almost every residential sector in Noida is equipped with well-maintained parks and kids play areas while the key parks in Gurgaon are the Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29, Tau Devi Lal Biodiversity Botanical Garden in Sector 52, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Park in Sector 14 and Tau Devi Lal park in Sector 23. However, most of the parks in Gurgaon are small and ill-maintained.

There are as many as 26 different size shopping and entertainment malls in Gurgaon while One of India’s biggest Great India Place resides in Noida. Other that this some major shopping and entertainment destinations in Noida includes Garden Galleria, The Mall of India (Under Construction), Centrestage Mall, The Spice World Mall, Shopprix Mall, Sab Mall and Atta Market, Sector 18.

Leading health care provider institutes in Gurgaon include Fortis Hospital, Medanta and Max Hospital. Gurgaon has become an increasingly popular destination for medical tourism. Noida too is not behind, it has health care facilities from Fortis, Max healthcare, Kailash, Apollo and more.

Noida is definitely ahead of Gurgaon when it comes to education facilities. The presence of UP Technical University, Amity University, MTU and many high rated technical and B-Schools in Noida makes it an education hub. Gurgaon has also attracted many educational institutions but most of them are either into offering the post academic training courses or just are not of that scale/reputation except IMT.

One thing which is good about Gurgaon is that it organizes Raahgiri Day every Sunday. Raahgiri is an event which closes streets to cars and opens them for the exclusive use of people for running, cycling, skating, or other recreational activities. It is a concept adopted by several cities around the world. Gurgaon is the first and only city in India to hold this event. Launched in November 2013, over 2,00,000 people have participated in this event since then.

Noida is 17th most clean city in India while Gurgaon stands at 87th place.

Transport and Connectivity

There are 11 subway or metro stations in Gurgaon, of which five are managed by Delhi metro which include HUDA City Centre, IFFCO Chowk, MG Road, Sikanderpur and Guru Droncharya. The rest six stations operated by Rapid Metro: Sikanderpur, Phase 2, Vodafone Belvedere Towers, IndusInd Bank Cyber City, Micormax Moulsari Avenue and Airtel Phase 3. Two stations, Shankar Chowk and Gateway tower, are scheduled to become operational soon. Two more phases of the metro project are in the pipeline and would take the total number of subway stations in Gurgaon to 16.

Gurgaon is connected to Delhi via NH8 and through Mahrauli. Faridabad has connectivity with Gurgaon via Aravali. Gurgaon is served by Indira Gandhi International Airport, though the airport is just outside the city limits and located within the jurisdiction of Delhi near National Highway 8.

Through Delhi Metro, Noida is now connected to Connaught Place, New Delhi, via Barakhambha Road, IP Estate and Akshardham Complex. DND flyover and Kalindi Kunj are two major connectivity mediums between Delhi and Noida.

Metro will be further expanded in the city and will go to Greater Noida. Recently, two new extension of Noida Metro has been approved up to ‘Sector 62, Noida’ from ‘Noida City Center’ and up to Jasola in New Delhi from ‘Botanical Garden, Noida’. An extension from Greater Noida to Yamuna Expressway City has also been approved by the authorities.

The Delhi eastern peripheral Road, Upper Ganga Canal Expressway and the Ganga Expressway are the three proposed expressways which will be passing the city.

Future

Greater Noida which has successfully hosted India’s first F1 on state of the art Buddh International Circuit F1 track developed and maintained by Jaypee Group have connectivity with 2 expressways, one in Noida-Greater Noida expressway and another is Yamuna expressway which connects it to Agra via Mathura. The future looks great for Greater Noida, while nothing is new about New Gurgaon. Noida, which supplied less than one third the properties as Gurgaon till 2007, now supplies six times more properties than its competitor.

Which city would you bet on – Key Differences?

• Noida has a better planned infrastructure in comparison with the Gurgaon’s infrastructure which is ignoring the basic facilities.
• The minimum road width in Noida’s industrial sectors is 80 feet compared to Gurgaon’s 45 feet.
• Noida has better water and electricity supply system. Most of its electricity supply is privatized while condition of power supply in Gurgaon is dependent upon Haryana State Electricity Board which in itself is not so productive/efficient.
• Real estate development being backed by the creation of associated physical infrastructure is higher in Noida and Greater Noida. While in Gurgaon, the situation is just opposite where infrastructure is developed after the real estate potential of an area has been nearly fully exploited.
• No polluting industry is permitted in Noida.
• Wide and better roads, public transport connectivity in each part of Noida, low cost of living, better connectivity through expressways, large green landscape areas, environmental friendly policies, and other related lifestyle facilities in Noida gives it an edge over Gurgaon.