Rohini

Rohini is one of the largest planned residential colonies in Asia, and it was built to solve a problem it ultimately worsened. In the 1980s, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) designed Rohini as a satellite township in northwest Delhi to absorb the capital's population overflow. Planned for roughly 500,000 residents across divided sectors with commercial zones, parks, and institutional areas, Rohini was meant to demonstrate that Indian urban planning could manage growth rationally.

The reality followed a different biological logic. Rohini's population swelled past 860,000 as affordable housing attracted families priced out of central Delhi. Unauthorized colonies sprouted in gaps between planned sectors. Traffic congestion overwhelmed road networks designed for a smaller population. The Delhi Metro's extension to Rohini (Red Line, completed 2008) improved connectivity but also accelerated in-migration by making the suburb accessible to workplaces across the capital.

Rohini's economy is primarily residential and service-oriented. Japanese Park, Rohini's main commercial hub, hosts retail and dining. Several hospitals, including MAX Super Speciality, serve the northwest Delhi catchment area. Educational institutions—Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology, Delhi Institute of Tool Engineering—provide local employment. But the dominant economic function is housing: Rohini exports workers to the rest of Delhi each morning and reabsorbs them each evening.

The planning paradox Rohini embodies is widespread across South Asian cities. Building affordable housing in the periphery attracts more residents than the infrastructure can support, which degrades the quality of life that attracted them, which pushes the next wave of migrants to an even more peripheral location. Rohini is now central enough that newer townships—Narela, Bawana—serve the overflow function it was designed to handle. The suburban frontier moves outward; the congestion stays.