a Tale of Three Towns

Re/development of the Precincts in Bawal, Rewari and Dharuhera

With over-population and steady degradation of urban living in Indian Metropolis, the focus of development is gradually shifting towards the small and medium sized towns, which has also been underlined by the recently launched Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). Within the improved communication networks, small and medium sized towns are also seen as alternative areas for ‘implanted’ work places because of cheaper land-price. These towns although get ‘fit’ within the popular concepts of the ‘global suburbs’ and ‘seamless cities’, yet somewhat nonchalantly,  encounter many ‘specific, local’ issues of smaller towns.

Urban Design Studio-2006 in Sushant began with an agenda of observing 3 small/medium towns — Rewari, Bawal and Dharuhera. These 3 towns, due to their proximity to Delhi and Gurgaon, are ‘preferred’ places of rapid urbanization and real estate ‘speculations’. Rewari district has made unprecedented progress on the industrial front in the last few years. A number of policy initiatives announced by the Government of Haryana from time to time have provided impetus for a rapid growth of industries in the district. The factors like, its location and connectivity, its well developed infrastructural base like extensive roads and communication network all over the district, total electrification, a large pool of skilled manpower, all supportive social environment and above all the development of various industrial colonies/ estates have made Rewari the choicest location for industries and as such high-tech and high value projects involving foreign collaborations.

At the moment, Rewari city area focuses on the smaller local industrial units, whereas most of the larger industrial developments have come up in the industrial townships of Dharuhera and Bawal, developed for that purpose. The small scale units are manufacturing a wide range of products, such as, industrial brass and copper sheets, brass handicrafts, zinc oxide, Light engineering products, cotton textured Yarn, cement etc. The industrial non-ferrous metal sheets manufactured in Rewari find a wide application in electrical and tea industry.  The traditional industry of brass utensils is a prestigious activity of this district. There are approximately 500 families who are engaged in this activity. Basically, they carry on this activity in their houses/shops with the help of iron and wooden hammers/implements. This trade is being practiced in this district for the last 400-500 years. The main tribe engaged in this activity belongs to Thathera caste.

Master plans 2021 for these 3 towns by the Development Authority clearly indicates huge urbanization by altering the scale and the nature of these towns. The tendency of conceiving these 3 towns as a unified urban agglomeration may also be observed in these Plans. Immediate reactions of that will certainly thrust upon transformations in the physical, social and economic fabric of Rewari, Bawal and Dharuhera.

Urban Design Studio-2006, thus, intends to narrate the ‘TALE OF THREE TOWNS’ by involving itself with this curious ‘model’ of urbanization, precariously poised within divergence of ‘global’ economic ambitions and ‘local’ political interests.

Faculty Members:

Mr. Suptendu P Biswas (Studio Coordinator), Mr. Ashok Grover, Mr. Vishal Aggarwal and Prof. Ram Sharma.

Students:

Himanshu Pandita, Sucheta Mehru, Mahima Murali, Vanicka Arora, Suparna Ghosh, Vanicka Arora Shruti Soni, Arjit Sinha, Gauri Das, Aditya Saigal, Rohit Roy, Ipsita Hadke, Anirudh Sardiwal, Abhinav Sinha, Apoorva Pal, Adil Iyengar, Manas Murthy, Supriya Goel, Abhishek Bharara, Neharlika Gujral, Amrita Minhas, Komal Anand, Priyadarshini Kacker, Ambika Mathur, Gobind Singh, Swati Gupta, Smriti Mathur, Mitu Mathur, Pavni Sahni, Karan Deep Singh, Pragya Ojha, Deepsha Srivastava, Gauri Bharihoke, Anupama Jain, Neha Oswal, Sakshi Varshney, Safura Fayaz, Raashi Chadha, Ginny.

We appreciate the invaluable contribution provided by:

Mr. Ajay Bisnoi at the Bilaspur Toll Plaza, Mr. D.N.Sharma, Senior Town Planner, HUDA-Gurgaon

Ms. Madhusmita Moitra, District Town Planner, HUDA-Rewari, The Sarpanches and Patwatris of the areas studied and  all the other officials who spared their precious time, and all those who helped us during the studio.

All factual information, drawings and photographs are from the research works, done by Fourth year students in the Urban Design Studio 2005-06, in Sushant School of Art & Architecture (unless mentioned otherwise).

Copyright ‘Sushant School of Art and Architecture’. All rights reserved. No part of the report may be re-printed or reproduced or utilized in any form without taking written permission from the above institution.