Notes on the Geography of Northern India: Noida

Noida isn't on the tourist itinerary, but it should be. India is a lot more than its antiquities, and if you want to see the emergent India cross the river and come south a few miles. 

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Barring rush-hour traffic, you can make good time.  Note the sign on the left, with a map identifying Medical City and BioTech City. 

Noida in the making: a developer has a site and a dream, promoted with flags, appeals to prestige, and splashy newspaper ads.

There's nothing on the site yet except a sales office and a model home.  Here's the kitchen, with drawers that glide, to the delight of the housewives who come to look.

The apartment is about the size of a Levittown home 50 years ago.  It's about the same price, too: $8,000.  But this won't be a single-family residence; it will be stacked up in towers with elevators. 

Next door, another developer and his field of dreams.

Noida already has a commercial center rich in realtors and jewellers.  You can find cell phones, too, and pizza.

The sign promotes a new model Maruti, the Indo-Suzuki vehicle that revolutionized India's car market.

People are certainly streaming in.  Any ideas what for?

Bingo: a shopping center.

Don't forget that this is urban India, though.  You can't escape the trash.

There's this, too.  Not squatters: these are the folks who do the building. Can't do without them.