'Faridabad' is a city and a
municipal corporation in
Faridabad district in the state of
Haryana,
India.
'Faridabad', also Fahridabad (
Hindi: फरीदाबाद) is a major industrial city and population center in
Haryana state, northern
India. It is located in
Faridabad District. the city was founded in 1607 by
Shaikh Farid, treasurer of
Jahangir, with the object of protecting the highway which passed through the town. Shaikh Farid built a fort, a tank and a mosque which are in ruins. Later, it became the headquarters of a
pargana which was held in
jagir by the Ballabgarh ruler. Faridabad became 12th district of
Haryana State on
15th August,
1979.
Overview
Faridabad is about 25 Kilometres south of Delhi at 28deg 25' 16" North Latitude and 77deg 18' 28" East Longitude. It is bounded by the National Capital Territory of
Delhi on its north,
Gurgaon District on the west, and of
Uttar Pradesh State on its east and south. Delhi-
Mathura National Highway No.2 (Shershah Suri Marg) passes through the centre of the district. It has an
Indian Railway station on the Delhi-Mathura double track broad-gauge line of the Central Railway.
Faridabad is now the most populated city of Haryana. 50% of Haryana's income tax comes from Faridabad and Gurgaon.
Faridabad is famous for Henna Production on agriculture sector while tractors, motorcycles, switch gears, refrigerators, shoes and tires are other famous industrial products of the city.
Badkhal Lake tourist complex,
Suraj Kund Tourist Complex, Aravalli Golf Club, Raja Nahar Singh Palace and Dabchick are the famous tourist spots.
For the ease of civil administration, Faridabad District is divided into five sub divisions, Faridabad, Ballabgarh, Palwal, Hodal and Hathin. Each subdivision is headed by a sub-divisional officer. Recently Faridabad has been suffering due to the departure of many manufacturing companies. Faridabad has seen Gurgaon and Noida speed ahead in development with lot of multinational companies setting up there.
Geography
Faridabad is located at
[1]. It has an average elevation of 198
metres (649
feet).
Faridabad City itself is a plain bordered by the River Yamuna to the east and Aravalli Hills towards the west and south West. Being in close proximity to the Yamuna the land east of the National Highway is better in quality than the western side. Today virtually all of the land has been filled up with residential housing as the population of the city swelled during the mid 90s.
Much like the rest of India the people of Faridabad rely on ground water for their basic needs which is the gift of good monsoon season.
Faridabad's population is predominantly Sikh and Hindu; the city has many gurudwaras and temples. Among main Gurudwaras includes Santo Ka Gurudwara, Singh Sabha, Pothi Mala and amongst temples Hanuman Mandir, Shiv Mandir of Sainik Colony and Ghusain Ka Mandir.
Sports
Adequate facilities for sports are available in
Nahar Singh Stadium, which is a common
One Day International venue in
India.
Demographics
As of 2001 India
census[2], Faridabad had a population of 1,054,981. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Faridabad has an average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 75%, and female literacy is 60%. In Faridabad, 15% of the population is under 6 years of age.
People of Faridabad share different ethnicity depending on when they or their ancestors moved to the area. Old Faridabad as the northern part of the city is known is home to people whose families might have been living in the area for centuries as this is the oldest part of the city. The ancestry of people is mostly Jat, Gujars and people from UP and villages in Haryana.
Faridabad NIT built after 1947 which lies west of the Railway tracks is home to a totally different group of people. The share their ancestry with the people of western India (or modern day Pakistan). These people could be called Banuwal, Derewal, Siraki, Multani and Pishori etc. depending on where their parents came from after the division of India in August, 1947. People here have known to have come from the Pakistani towns and cities of Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bannu, Peshawar and Kohat. People were allotted houses on the condition that they will hold these for 99 years and will pay them off each month. NIT was divided by areas called NH or sectors e.g. Number 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 which in turn had blocks from A to ... depending on how many blocks it had.
Gujars are another group of people who live in and around the Aravalli hills. They have also lived in the hills for centuries and some of whom are quite rich today.
The rapid growth of the city also brought immigrants to the city from other parts of the country. People from UP, villages in and around Faridabad, Rajasthan, Bihar and some from Bengal swelled the population size. It is said that Faridabad was initially planned for 3 lakh people(300, 000) but the total population of the city is well over 20 lakhs today(2 million).
People of Faridabad are very modern owing to an industrialized economy. A reflection of the lifestyle of Delhiites can be seen in Faridabad. A Recent India-Today survey showed that people here are among top ten buyers of healthcare and beauty products in India.
Besides, the city also has a sizeable population of Bengalis. The city comes alive during the Winter Navratras, especially during the Vijay Dashami/Dusshera day when scores of Maa Durga Idols leave for the immersion. Immersion is done at Okhla Barrage at the border of Delhi-UP. In all there are about 10-12 Durga Puja's held every year in the main city, district count easily surpassing 30. Hence it can safely be assumed that there must at least be 70,000 Bengalis in the town. The hard working community has added to the considerable growth of the city as many of them own houses and are the permanent resident of the city. Many of them commute to nearby Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad for their livelihood.
District Administration
★
Mayor of the
Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF),
★ Commissioner (M. S)
★
Deputy Commissioner (Brijender singh).
★
Sr. Superintendent of Police (Alok MIttal).
★
Deputy Conservator of Forests.
★
District & Sessions Judge (Currently Sh. L. N. Mittal)
★
HUDA Administrator (Sh. J. S. Ahlawat)
★ Sectoral development is looked after by the district head/officer of each development department such as PWD, Health, Mines, Education, Agriculture, Animal husbandry, etc. These officers are from various Haryana state services.
Economy
Faridabad is a massive economic engine for Haryana. Faridabad and Gurgaon generate over 50% of the income tax to the Haryana government.
[1]
Agriculture
Wheat was grown in Faridabad before but the agriculture has since moved towards the villages of Haryana as Faridabad saw a boom in the population in the early 90s. Almost all of agricultural land has been taken over by the residential housing. However, the 'Anaaj Mandi' (Grain Market) of heritage value still exists in Old Faridabad.
Central Government Offices
Faridabad has benefited from plans of Union Government to decongest Delhi by shifting a number of Central Government Offices to Faridabad. Many directorates of different union government ministries are headquartered in Faridabad. Prominent among them are Central Water Organisation, Dte. of Plant Quarntine, Central Insecticide Lab. A number of Union Government Offices for Haryana are based here such as Department of Explosives, Labour etc.
Manufacturing
Faridabad is the industrial heart of Haryana. It is home to hundreds of large scale companies like
Orient fans (
C.K.Birla Group),
JCB India Limited,
Nirigemes,
Agri Machinery Group (
Escorts Limited),
Yamaha Motor India Pvt. Ltd.,
Whirlpool, ABB Ltd.,Goodyear Tyres, knorr bremse india pvt. ltd., faridabad. There are thousands of medium and small scale units as well.
In the software field Easy Infotech is the largest ERP provider.
Financial
Faridabad contributes 51 percent of the income of
Haryana alone. This engineering cluster city is now to get the software park which is known as
Haryana Technology Park.
Military
The
Indian Air Force has a logistics base in Faridabad. The resident unit is No. 56 Air Storage Park as well as the Air Force Guard Dog Training Unit. The IAF Base is commanded by a
Group Captain of the Logistics Branch. Formerly, a
SA-2 SAM Squadron was also based in Faridabad.Although there is no army organisation in faridabad there are many retired army officers settled in sectors.
R&D Facility
Faridabad has one of finest R&D facilities in Asia. R&D division of India's Biggest Corporate, (Indian Oil) is located in Faridabad. The division is critical contributor in fulfilling India's Defence Requirements.[Indian Oil Corporation Limited] has its R&D centre at sector 13 Faridabad and leads in petroleum Research. The center was founded on 10th March, 1972 and now employes around 500 scientists and technical staff.
Communications
Faridabad is well connected to the world by the latest means of communications that includes
GSM,
WLL,
Dialup internet connection,
DSL internet connection,
Leased line internet connection.
Govt operated fixed line/land line telephone connections privately operated, world class network of fixed line phones.
Apart from the electronic media coverage you can also communicate with Faridabad via the
government operated postal department World class
courier services like
DHL,
DTDC,
Fedex. Also the city is linked by the small time couriers which are much inexpensive compared to the bigger ones.
Transportation
It includes everything starting from an auto-rickshaw to the rich cars like
Maybach. Auto-rickshaws run mainly on national highway connecting Delhi border and Ballabgarh. Likewise other means of transport are taxis, buses etc.
Personal cars and two-wheelers have gradually been increasing since recent years making the city cause of jams and traffic blocks.
Trains stop at three railway stations in Faridabad connecting
Ballabgarh to
New Delhi. Metro rail services are likely to reach the city by 2010 as proposed by Delhi government.
Education
★
National Power Training Institute (NPTI).
★
B.S.Anangpuria Institute of Tech. & Mgt.
★
LINGAYA'S Institute of Management & Technology
★
DAV Institute of Management
★
Career Institute of Technology and Management
★
Rai Foundation Engineering College
★
Manav Rachna College of Engineering
★
YMCA Institute of Engineering
★
Al-Falah School of Engg. & Tech.
★
Saheed Bhagat Singh College of Management and Technology
★
National Institute of Law
★
National Institute of Animal Welfare Ballabhgarh Faridabad
It also has some well known schools like:
★
Faridabad Model School, Sector-31
★
Modern DPS, Sector-87Faridabad (MDPS)
★
Eicher School, Sector-46
★
Ryan International School (RIS)
★
Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1
★
Kendriya Vidyalaya No 2
★
Apeejay School (Sector 15, Faridabad)
★
St. Albans School
★
Aravali International School
★
Carmel Convent School (sector 7D,Faridabad)
★
Dayanand Anglo Vedic Public School (Sector 14, Faridabad) (DAV)
★
Delhi Public School (Faridabad) (DPS)
★
Jiva Public School
★
Modern School (Faridabad)
★
Modern Vidya Niketan (MVN)
★
SOS Hermann Gmeiner School (Sector-29 Faridabad)
★
Vidya Sanskar - International School for Holistic Learning, Village Bhopani
★
Vidya Mandir Public School (sec-15 Faridabad)
★
Manav Rachna International School
Tourism & Recreation
Bhadkal lake and
Suraj kund are some natural places to visit. However, large parks like
Rose Garden and
Town park are also some nice places to visit in the morning and the evenings for Faridabadis. Bowling alleys and small shopping malls started appearing in the city during the late 90s near the
Mathura Road. However, in the last 5 years there has been a trend of large scale shopping malls.
Ansal Crown Plaza and
SRS World are just the start in an idea that seems to have worked quite well for Faridabad. These malls contain many shops like
Woodland,
Ebony and
Vibe as well as fast food giants like
McDonalds,
Subway etc. They also have cinemas catering to moviegoers and teenagers. There have been at least 10 more of these malls planned in and around Mathura Road (National highway). The reason might be large interest for the local public and teenagers as well as the foreigners heading towards
Agra on the National highway. The malls offer a refreshing break for shopping as well as food.
The
Nahar Singh Stadium is the home ground of the
Haryana cricket team, and also hosts
One-day International matches.
'Some prime residential properties under construction'
Omaxe The Forest
Omaxe Hills
Omaxe Green Valley
Piyush Heights
Vesta Heights
BPTP Park Grandeura
BPTP Princess Park
Neighbours
Gurgaon,
NOIDA and
New Delhi.
References
1. Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Faridabad
2.
External links
★
District Faridabad Offical Web Site
★
Faridabad Tourist Complexes
★
Surajkund Tourist Complex
★
Haryana Official Website
★
NPTI Faridabad
★