The plan, indeed, was excellent. There is not a single aspect of industrial estates that has not been taken care of. There are wide roads, big parking spaces for cars as well as trucks, green belts, parks with landscaping, telephone exchange, a substation of the Delhi Vidyut Board, banks, commercial complexes, facility centres, a guest house,godowns, etc. A common effluent treatment plant (CETP) is under construction. "This is the best industrial area in the Capital. That is why we can show it with pride to any visitor," claims Sudarshan Sareen, chairman, DSIDC.

Setting up of the Narela industrial estate started in 1978. It is spread over 612 acres at Narela in north Delhi. In all, there are 1,800 plots, each of 350 sq m. They are most suitable for housing small and medium units.

According to DSIDC, allotment has been made for 1,750 plots; possession of 1,600 plots has been handed over to entrepreneurs on full payment. The first phase of the complex is over. There is also a proposal to develop a hi-tech park in the estate.

DSIDC claims to have planted more than 5,000 trees in the estate. Care has been taken in the plan to keep a big portion of the estate green. But vegetation seems to have come up without much effort on the part of DSIDC. All over the estate there are green patches of wild bushes and shrubs but no lush and luxuriantvegetation. "We have sprinklers all over the green belt, though all of them are not working. When the CETP starts working, the treated water would be used for horticultural purposes," claims a senior DSIDC official at the corporation's Narela branch. The local industrialists are, however, not impressed by such claims. "I don't know when we would be blessed with idyllic surroundings -- treated water going to plants and grass, and all that. What we know is that we have fetch drinking water from our homes and the workers depend on groundwater lifted with handpump."

In fact, the Narela industrial estate looks more like a sparsely populated residential colony than an industrial area. One doesn't find smoke-spewing chimneys here. "There are no polluting units at the estate," explains the DSIDC official.

Besides, not many units are functional. According to Jain, there are about 120 working factories. "DSIDC is responsible for this. Getting a no-objection certificate (NOC) is an ordeal. The estate is plaguedwith all sorts of problems. And the corporation is hardly responsive," points out Jain. The local industrialists' list of woes is long and similar to those read by industry representatives at other industrial areas. The power problem is severe. Sewer lines are bad and there is no outlet. Though the estate is not located at a very far-off place -- it is less than 30 kilometres from Connaught Place -- the approach road is not good. Skilled labourers are scarce. DSIDC charges Rs 5,700 per annum from each unit as maintenance charges, but maintenance is poor. Officers get transferred frequently. There are no street lights. Green belts are not taken care of properly.

Adding to the problems of the entrepreneurs is the grim law and order situation. "The police say that we should go in for the verification of workers. But if we insist on that, most of them would run away as they are from Bihar. DSIDC has also shown little sympathy with the plight of industrialists. The security guards that the corporation hasprovided don't seem to be fit for the job. As a result, a lot of thefts have taken place in the industrial area," laments Jain.

DSIDC officials say that Narela is the only industrial estate in Delhi where provision has been made for workers' tenements. Housing of industrial labour has been a big but unattended to problem in the Capital; this was ignored in the plan of any other industrial area. Result: mushrooming of slums all over the city, including on government land at prime locations, and environmental degradation. In fact, the defilement of surroundings often assumes alarming proportions. It sometimes leads to social tensions and even law and order problems, as the slumdwellers use every nook and corner to ease themselves out. Yet, the authorities have so far ignored the problem. In this context, keeping an entire sector at the Narela industrial estate to provide for the workers' housing is indeed a welcome measure. Construction, however, is yet to commence for workers' tenements.The localentrepreneurs feel that with a little more effort by the authorities, Narela can indeed become a model industrial estate.