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Gated Communities The need of the hour

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By editor

The recent spate of robberies in so called secure and posh localities of Belgaum has shaken Belgaumites badly. Belgaum is no longer a peaceful and secure city that it used to be. A “Pensioner’s Paradise” it was called once, but not anymore.

What could be the possible reasons for this change is an issue to be discussed at length. A major reason is the growing economic status of the citizens. The real estate sector in Belgaum has seen a tremendous growth in the last 2 years. The pleasant climate and its proximity to major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Goa and Hyderabad has always attracted outsiders to settle down in Belgaum. A robust local economy thanks to the foundry industry, agriculture and several quality institutes offering education in medical, engineering and even management has helped the city grow by leaps and bounds. Rising incomes coupled with the absence of quality housing projects has made the affluent class find their own solution, buy a plot in a posh locality and then spend a fortune to build palatial houses by hiring the best in the industry. But one important element that is often ignored is security. Rarely do you find a proper security guard manning the gates of a plush bungalow (which by the way are quite common in the city!)

The solution to this problem is a Gated Community. Gated Communities are a rage in metros and other bigger cities, as they provide all amenities that residents can possibly think of along with 24 hours security and beautifully designed residential units. So what exactly is a gated community? A gated community is a residential area with controlled access, used to protect the privacy and safety of residents. Special security personnel man various entry and exit points. A closely connected set of security personnel feed information on visitors entering the premises and save residents the pain of answering umpteen doorbells rung by salesmen or other unwanted visitor on the premises. With many professionals who keep travelling a lot, security of their homes is a big challenge, “An independent house or just a regular apartment does not offer that security. But in a gated community, these residents can leave their house for months without fear of being broken into or tampered with”, says an NRI.

Commonly, a gated community will offer residents services and accessible features. These may include playgrounds, pools, shops, laundry facilities, gyms, health spas, private security workers, and even golf courses. Some gated communities are so elaborate and offer so many services that residents have little reason to leave the area for necessities.

Gated communities are debatable, as they are often depicted as an elitist escape from an actual city or community that includes those too poor to afford the finer lifestyle. Critics suggest that residents of a gated community are detached from their locale, and do not see the problems of their town or city because they are gathered together in a homogeneous wealthy area. The actual physical gates keeping people out of the area are seen by some as an obstacle to personal freedom, and a means of discouraging interaction between economically different people.

Yet the rationale for creating secure housing for the famous or notable is clear: it ensures some privacy and safety for those most in need of it. For security purposes, guards and even private police firms may be necessary to protect famous people from violent crime in their homes. High-ranking government personnel in particular are in need of a gated community lifestyle, if only to protect them from threats to their privacy and their person.

Quite a few real estate companies from Belgaum and even from cities like Pune and Mumbai have already started offering the residents this kind of projects in Belgaum. Lotus Landmarks Pvt. Ltd., a renowned developer from Pune is all set to launch such a project in Belgaum. Named “Lotus County”, it is a 10 acre township hardly a kilometer away from Tilakwadi 1st Railway Gate.
The other gated communities planned in Belgaum are Bella vista and Noorani Corbel.
 

18 thoughts on “Gated Communities The need of the hour”

  1. All this are indicator that real green belgaum is slowly dying, most of the theft incidents are happening in extention areas like hanuman nagar, chennama nagar , mal maruti etc..where houses are not close to each other as in the main city area also police station may not be fully function in these extention areas.
    belgaumites like to have gallies, crowded neighbour hood like in shahpur, khade bazar, fulbag galli, tanaji galli kapileshware road maruti galli, ganpat galli, shrei galli, math galli.
    I think belgaumites enjoyed having there own independent one or 2 storied homes rather than a chawl or apartment system

    Gated community is no answer to this problem they are just here to loot farming land and increase land rates.
    I think this gated community is for those coming from outside (Pune / mumbai). definetly these people will never understand what true belgaum is and confine everything inside there gated community

    when ppl in belgaum celebrate any festival holi, ganpati,diwali, jayanti or panchami they dont restrict with any gates they celebrate on the streets of belgaum.

    Reply
    • I dont think der is any restriction of gates in gated communities to go out n celebrate festival like holi, ganesh jayanti, diwali or panchami.. But surely d gate will restrict thief to enter….. N about staying in crowded area ask to those people who r staying in crowded areas (galli).,,,, student cant study, old age people cant sleep peacefully…

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  2. We need gated community living. What is wrong with it? I have a house in Rani Chennamma Nagar and was also burgled recently( the same night). I have old parents and I am abroad. We never even reported the matter to the police. What's the use ? It is a nuisance dealing with the police and nothing fruitful comes out of it.
    If a common watch and ward is provided and few like minded people live together in a secured and well provided accommodation, I would be the first person to opt for it. Yes, if you need comforts with security, one has to pay for it. What is elitist in this?

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  3. There have been enough robberies in gated communities in Bangalore too, you need to secure yourself more, there's no single solution to this menace

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  4. Kapil,Sagar: Rather than dismissing the idea completely, we need to weigh the pros and cons. Even I am working abroad and have old parent back home staying alone, these recent robberies have me worried for my parents safety. And fyi, I am from Mumbai, but we did not want to settle down there after my fathers retirement coz u knw the situation in Mumbai is far worse when it comes to senior citizens staying alone, even I welcome the idea of a gated community in Belgaum, the beauty of belgaum is space is still available with green pockets

    Reply
    • I hope you know what is the condition of existing metros in india no infrastructure to commute long traffic jams, have to buy bottled drinking water, in hear sometime ago in bangalore people used these bottled drinking water for bathing and wiping shits. same condition in mumbai

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  5. Belgaum is changing for sure, its changed status Politically and Socially will bring it right in the middle of action. Its strong education base, Second Capital Status, Settled Social issues, mushrooming industries will definitely bring in change. And this change is unavoidable. So instead of resisting it blindly may not be a good idea. Instaed we as Belgamites should prepare ourselves and make best of it. Planned development is always better. See the differance in the way Pune or most of Mumbaies old suburbs like Meera Nagar grew and the way New Mumbai and Chandigarh got developed. So we need to act fast and put pressure on local govt. to Plan this future development. Firstly we need to urgently implement the long pending CDP. Secondly we need to put forth speedy sanction and approval process of the projects which are adhering to the ecological and environmental requirements. Also some benefits to the developments which will be following Environmental practices can be thought on.

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  6. there is no turning back now for belgaum. karnataka government has firmly communicated to evry1 that belgaum is a part of karnataka, the vidhana soudha coming up at halga is testimony to it. once a few bluechip companies set shop here, especially from the IT industry, belgaum will drastically change. but we need not worry, we belgaumites can ensure that this remains a planned development

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  7. Gated communities will have their own pros n cons but it depends what we infer from it, how do we take it, Metros r now become conjusted like hell, this is all the result of unplanned, rapid development. In mumbai itself where the places like Dadar, Bandra and Church Gate are ill planned its vice a versa in Navi Mumbai. Its just because of proper planning done over there. Belgaum needs to revamped, I was looking out for a calm serene secure place in Belgaum because i have had enough of this crowded life and i guess these communities will provide what is needed.

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  8. If u r worried about security den gated community is d best option to select, not only security some other advantages of d gated community r we'll get good amenities, good neighborhood,

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  9. The best gated community which i know in Belgaum is "Bella Vista"… They hav maintained a very good quality of construction with great amenities…

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  10. I completely agree that a gated community is the way into the future; but have we seriously thought about how many people can actually afford such a place. As someone earlier commented that if you want to be safe, well you have to pay for it – but how many can actually pay for it. There is a huge financial gap between the various classes of people living in Belgaum itself; and let me just say this out loud – most of the people welcoming this idea are from abroad with parents settled here well we can for sure say that they can afford such a place.

    In my opinion, we need to firstly look at the root cause of all these incidents.. which is again very clear, it is the disparity in the income levels of the people living here due to various reasons.. unemployment etc.

    We need to find a solution that works for all and not for just a few… that's all i'm saying and getting the politicians involved.. wow.. that would really suck the life out of Belgaum.

    Reply

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