The Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, with its Rules of 1976, created a licensing route by which private "colonisers" could assemble farmland and build residential, commercial or industrial colonies under a licence from the Director of Town and Country Planning, an approved layout plan and external development charges. Colonisers had to place 30 per cent of plot receipts in a separate account for internal development works, while the state was to supply trunk infrastructure. Unlike Delhi, where the DDA monopolised land development, Haryana thus outsourced city-building to developers, above all DLF. The regime produced Gurugram - a corporate edge city of licensed private colonies, malls and campuses on Delhi's south-western flank.
This is the founding statute of India's private-developer urbanism, the model later echoed in township policies and licensed enclaves across the country. It also generated the characteristic pathology of the licensed colony: excellent private interiors set against failed public water, drainage and road networks between them.
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