The changing face of Haridwar and Roorkee

Over the years twin cities have come a long way. Karthik Reddy traces their success march

I went to engineering school at Roorkee (pronounced Rude-key for the uninitiated). "Oh, you go to Rourkela" crooned the slightly more knowledgeable Madras aunties who were told that I was studying Engineering at Roorkee. I politely turned on my charm and mentioned that this was not the REC but the Univ of Roorkee in 'Northern' UP, 30km south of Haridwar (In my mind, I liked to think of UP as north and south unlike east and west as the world tried to educate me. I was vindicated when Uttarakhand was born). "Ohhh! Have you been to Haridwar then?" was the next question. I would reply in the affirmative, having accompanied the band of Brahmin boys (handful of south Indian classmates at Roorkee) to a thread-changing ritual one nippy morning in March. The water was freezing and the 1.3 second full-body dip seemed a tad too long. The more adventurous dive of jumping off one of the less intimidating foot bridges also ensued and was surprisingly less daunting.

All these happy memories rushed by as the Innova hurtled along the road adjacent to the erstwhile University of Roorkee, which is now IIT-Roorkee. Through the better part of the 90s, Roorkee and Haridwar had singular claims to fame, or perhaps two. Roorkee had its University and its Cantonment area -- the entire town's population of approximately 50,000 people largely served these two ecosystems. Haridwar is one of the oldest known towns and one of the holiest places for Hindus. It has always been a fluid mating of the Ganga with its seekers - Nagas, spiritual persons, religious persons, Hari (Lord Shiva - father to Ganga) worshippers, sinners, etc. And along with the annual celebrations of festivals, add the manic frenzies of the Ardh Kumbh and the Kumbh (earlier this year) and Haridwar has calendars filled with an influx of above constituents. With increased connectivity -- trains, cheaper flights and increased population of sinners -- from even more remote corners of India, the crowds keep surging in with infrastructure failing to keep pace. To illustrate, at a post-dinner chat with the housekeeper of the ashram where we were staying, we were getting a post-Kumbh review.

He spoke of the immense rivers of humans that flowed through every pedestrian space in Haridwar, just in case we hadn’t known that already. This flood of humans is so heavy that automobiles are banned from entering large sections of the town. Every Mahamandaleshwar was allowed one car. However, a fleet of vehicles belonging to Pilot Baba abused his political equity (huge support from sword-brandishing Nagas) to bring his cars close to Har ki Pauri. An accident on one of the weaker approach bridges saw one of his six cars kill a woman pilgrim and mayhem ensued with angry crowds swelling on the bridge until one railing gave way. What was reported initially as few deaths supposedly ran into several dozens as one discovered later from the recovered bodies downstream. Just for the record, the police were in denial of any more than the official number and everything was hushed, desi ishtyle. For the curious, the story’s predictable – Pilot Baba appeared and testified two weeks later that he didn’t know the driver of the car and it was not even his car that caused the accident. Are we going to be ready for the next Kumbh?

Gateway to prosperity

When BHEL set up a facility at nearby village of Ranipur, in 1964, a new wave of post-independence development was ushered into the region. BHEL currently employs over 8,000 people across two facilities. Less than 10 years into statehood, industry-friendly policies are set to dramatically alter the storylines for these two towns of Uttarakhand. What's being adopted as a strategy to attract investments into new states like Uttarakhand has been the tax-holiday scheme. With excise and income taxes on operations from these locations being exempt for 10 and 5 years, respectively, new capacities for manufacturing have shifted rapidly to these states. Hero Honda's most recent expansion (plant originally started production in 2008) has taken employment to over 3,500 as per a project manager in a nearby factory. It’s also considered one of the greenest auto plants in the country and brings with itself 100 ancillary manufacturers around it. Average age of workers in this plant is estimated to be in the mid-twenties. Brittania, India Glycols, Century Textiles, Bajaj Asahi Glass, M&M, Atlas Cycles, MAXX Mobile and Tata Motors have all made large investments into the region.

Roorkee's geographic proximity to Delhi and its installed base of education infrastructure and resources, thanks to one of the oldest colleges in the country is enabling a surge of technical and vocational and specialized instruction in and around the town. With the power of this fortuitous combination, the region is not likely to see any slowdown of investment and influx of immigrants. Don’t forget Baba Ramdev’s campus and the surround effect that it alone may have.

In one of the most ambitious capacity expansions that I’ve come across in my humble career, we visited the old and the new facilities of a company in the mobile space. The promoter proudly showed his new facility, 10 times larger than his old and even with enhanced automation, one that’s likely to see a five-fold increase in workforce in Phase I and perhaps a twenty-fold increase in Phase II. He’s planning to build dormatories for all the single men and women in their twenties who’re likely to flock to the employment opportunity being created out of nowhere. Even now, just within his much smaller existing production center, we’re told that labor comes from the hills, the plains and everywhere in between. The GM of the plant said that he has seen 5-10 fold increases in rents in Haridwar over the last 4-5 years. There’s a gradual but assertive new image being built on the back of these investments into the state.

Surprisingly, despite all this, even the in-city traffic yet seemed relatively light on the highway that runs through the heart of Roorkee and Haridwar. Maybe it's explained by the summer holidays at IIT and the quiet aftermath of the Maha Kumbh. I don't think this situation will prevail for too long. Such a large scale of imminent industrial and service activity in the swathes of land between these two towns could break the back of this small hill state.

The pressures of migration into the state combined with the shortage of roads and housing and other infrastructure will hurt. The bodies governing Uttarakhand must realize that they have created a Naya Dwar (new door) into their new state. For this door to open to a road of prosperity, they need to create a Nayi Kee, one that can change the face of a 50km stretch from the south of Roorkee to north of Haridwar.