GURGAON VS NOIDA

PROPERTY MATTERS:

Gurgaon's zooming real estate prices underline the fact that it has arrived as a leading commercial and residential hub while Noida and Greater Noida continue to lag behind. Commercial space in Gurgaon today fetches a monthly rent of between Rs 120 and Rs 140 per square foot. In Noida, the same space is available for a paltry sum of Rs 35 per square foot.

GURGAON

The same story holds for residential space. Gurgaon's new sectors command a handsome price of Rs 4,000 per sq foot but in Noida, the price is between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500 per square foot. But Noida developers are building big for the future. A large number of high-quality commercial and residential projects are being developed on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

A couple of upmarket residential projects are being constructed around 18-hole golf courses, which can rival any similar projects in Gurgaon. A residential project in Greater Noida by Jaypee Greens on 452 acres with an 18-hole golf course at the centre provides a world-class residential option to top corporate honchos. Gurgaon, on the other hand, has only the DLF golf course to boast of.

EAT & SHOP :

If you're the kind who needs a 'special' coffee place, eat out every other day or just unwind with a pitcher of freshly brewed wheat beer, then Gurgaon is just the place for you. Whatever else Noida may have on Gurgaon , its Haryana counterpart steals a march when it comes to entertainment and eating-out options. There are over 40 malls spread all over Gurgaon with cinema halls, restaurants and international brands. Compare that with Noida where all the action is centred around Atta Market or Sector 18.

If spending a weekend at the mall isn't your scene, then Gurgaon has plenty of fine-dining restaurants - standalone and in hotels - late-night dhabas, quiet coffee places, a superb bakery or even ahatas where you can take your booze, order some food and sit back while a Jimi Hendrix concert plays on the big screen. Innumerable microbreweries have sprouted in Gurgaon giving beer drinkers reason to cheer. Clubs in Gurgaon remain open till at least till 3am. Even liquor shops are licensed to stay open till 2am and some will even deliver at your doorstep. There is culture, too, with venues like Epicentre hosting some of the best theatre groups in India.

METRO MATTERS:

When it comes to Metro rail-based connectivity, Noida scores over Gurgaon. The authorities have collected money from end users and created a huge corpus of around Rs 9,000 crore for extending the existing lines up to Greater Noida. But, there is no similar mechanism available in Gurgaon.

SADAK, BIJLI, PAANI :

Gurgaon's swankiness is confined to indoors. The sewage main lines are missing in most localities, especially in the new Gurgaon sectors where sewage is dumped in vacant plots. The Haryana Urban Development Authority has adopted the Greater Noida model in developing sectors, with private companies constructing and maintaining the infrastructure. On the power front, both witness power outages of around 8 to 12 hours during summer. Water is where the east scores since it has more groundwater availability. Future plans for Gurgaon envisage a sufficient quantity of water from the NCR channel. Noida, on the other hand, has plans to provide 100% Ganga water by 2020.

PARK AND RIDE :

Cyber City is where the very centre of corporate razzle-dazzle in Gurgaon lies, though you wouldn't have guessed it if you go by the pockmarked and water-logged roads here. In Udyog Vihar, the region's industrial hub, with over 2,000 manufacturing units doing thousands of crores worth of business, there's no sign of a parking facility. Drive through the plushest of residential colonies, Sushant Lok, and marvel at the great heaps of garbage lying uncollected for months. Noida, on the other hand, follows a better approach to town management. The suburb has well laid-out sectors with wide roads, flyovers and under-passes and plenty of local shopping complexes in each sector. The Noida Authority recently announced the allocation of Rs 4,997.65 crore for development projects.

NOIDA BUILDINGS
HEALTHCARE:

When it comes to education, Gurgaon boasts of bigger names like Sriram and Heritage. But in terms of hospitals, they are about equal. Large facilities like Medanta, Fortis, Artemis and Paras are coming up in Gurgaon. Noida has its share of hospital chains like Fortis, Max Healthcare, Apollo, Metro and Kailash.

BRAND WARS :

Driving the Noida story is Mayawati, who has moved beyond her Behenji image, and is burning a lot of rubber to win the race. Team Hooda has the advantage of a pole position. Even if they seem a bit out of form now, maybe, a pit stop is all they need. Perception plays a huge role on track as well as off it. Till recently, Gurgaon was seen as a VIP city. Noida was still a middle-class suburb, notorious for crime.

The future looks great for Greater Noida, while nothing is new about New Gurgaon. Noida, supplied less than onethird the properties as Gurgaon till 2007, now supplies six times more properties than its competitor. It has better connectivity with three expressways and has successfully hosted the F1. But all is not well with Noida. More than 50,000 apartments were put at risk during the Noida Extension land dispute, which is yet to be resolved. If the realty bubble bursts, middle-class investors will be the biggest sufferers. The chequered flag is still out of sight. Which city would you bet on?