Title - Rohtak rocks while Gurgaon quakes

GURGAON: Till a few years ago, Rohtak used to be a sleepy town on NH-10. Despite being just an hour-and-a-half drive away from Delhi, it remained untouched by development and modernity. On weekends, youngster would travel to Gurgaon just to see its skyscrapers and swanky malls.Well, that was then. Today, Rohtak has emerged as a political capital of Haryana as chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has not forgotten his homeland. Things have changed quite drastically since 2005. New roads have been laid across the city and NH-10 is going through an expansion. The education sector has got a big boost after the city pipped the rest of the NCR to be home to the Indian Institute of Management. Maharshi Dayanand University and Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences ( PGIMS) are among the finest educational institutions in north India. That's not it.Every second street has an English-only school, some of them being centrally airconditioned. The old cricket stadium has been replaced by Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex, which hosts world-class facilities. A decade ago, the city had only Maruti 800s and a few SUVs. Today, there are more than 200 super luxury cars like Mercedes, Audis and BMWs. About 500 new cars hit the city roads every month, clogging its narrow roads. Rohtak, which was then famous for its 'gajak', now has a multiplex where youngsters chew on Dominos and down Baskin Robbins. Two new malls are coming soon.

Don't be impressed by all this, because a new Rohtak is created on the outskirts - one that can challenge Gurgaon tomorrow. Here, the Hooda government is developing an industrial model township on 5,500-acre land. MNCs like Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Suzuki Motorcycle, Nippon Carbide, Amul Dairy, Lakshmi Precision Screws and Aisin Automotive have launched work on projects worth Rs 5,000 crore.

With this, integrated townships like Omaxe City and Sun City are coming up. Land rates have gone up by two-to-three folds in last few years.

Last month, during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of its only R&D facility outside Japan, Maruti Suzuki managing director Shinzo Nakanishi said that like Gurgaon, Rohtak will soon make its mark on the international automobile market.

Hooda's strategy for Rohtak's development has been infrastructure-driven. As a result, the city has well-carpeted roads, six flyovers, glittering streetlights, big roundabouts, and a solid drainage system. Roads to Panipat, Hisar, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Sonipat are also being expanded. The Rohtak-Delhi rail section is also being electrified and a proposal of laying a new railway line to Jhajjar-Rewari and Meham-Hansi is also in the pipeline.