Whomsoever thought the infrastructure back in India is still in the stone age must be joking. An official trip recently to the Noida-Delhi-Gurgoan belt was an eye-opener. The region is developing extremely fast. They say that Noida and gurgoan were forests in the early 90s. Just one look at it now gives the impression of a silicon valley in the making. The entire region is being divided into sectors. Some sectors are allocated to industries, some to schools, many to residential and the like. One who lives there must have the feeling that he must be in california. Cars are everywhere, well connected metros (in the making), and huge huge malls (even a haldirams has a builing like walmart with vast car parkings and wide area). No wonder the region is the home of such biggies like IBM, Alcatel, freescale, conexant (and a countless others) . With the central government backing up well , the region might very well turn out to be the silicon valley after Bangalore (If one is adament about it). Also the region is very close to best tourist destinations in the country. One has to apreciate the previous BJP government for initiating the golden quadrilateral project. The quadrilateral not only connects the four metros byepassing all the state capitals but also is state-of-the-art. Contructed with 3 main lanes and 2 service lanes on either side, with plants (mainly roses) in between the dividers, the interstate highways must be jealous. Strategically located, geographically well connected, abundant water and food, one can only dream of the regions future.

But nothing comes free of cost. A car has to pay a toll of 55Rs to entering the golden quadrilateral and 18Rs entering noida from Delhi. The cost of living is extremely expensive for indian standards (which is not totally unexpected) and dont even bother to check the real estate prices there !!

Raghu.