“Connaught Place is to Delhi what IFFCO Chowk is to Gurgaon.” That’s quite a statement isn’t it? Today we are at IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon Haryana. This bustling intersection is more than just a place where roads meet. It’s a landmark.
IFFCO Chowk is a major crossroads in Gurgaon. National Highway 48 cuts through it connecting Delhi to Jaipur. This makes IFFCO Chowk a vital point for traffic flowing in and out of Delhi.
But there’s more to IFFCO Chowk than just roads. It’s also a station on the Yellow Line of the Delhi Metro. This provides easy access to the area. The IFFCO Chowk metro station is near the headquarters of several major companies. IFFCO PowerGrid Corporation of India and RITES Limited all have offices nearby. Essel Towers a residential complex and the Westin Hotel Gurugram are also close.
Interestingly IFFCO Chowk almost became a terminal point for the Airport Express Line. This extension would have allowed commuters to travel directly to the airport’s Terminal 3. The trip from IFFCO Chowk to T3 would have taken only 14 minutes. A trip to New Delhi Railway Station would have taken around 30 to 35 minutes. Gurugram would have been the first city outside New Delhi in the National Capital Region to have a direct airport connection. This expansion was expected to be operational by 2016.
Did you know that IFFCO Chowk wasn’t always the bustling hub it is today? Back in 1975 IFFCO bought 20 acres of land here for a mere Rs 24 per square yard. At that time Gurgaon was a small village.
One of the reasons IFFCO chose Gurgaon was its proximity to the airport. The area seemed well connected. No one at the time imagined it would become the IFFCO Chowk we know today.
In the 1970s Gurgaon had very few major properties. There were Oberoi’s farms on one side of the road and the IFFCO colony on the other. The road to the airport was so bad that many people preferred taking MG Road to Delhi.
Ajay Pandey who has worked at IFFCO Gurgaon for over 23 years shared an interesting fact. Even without an IFFCO board outside the office the place became known as IFFCO Chowk.
So the next time you pass through IFFCO Chowk take a moment to appreciate its history. It wasn’t always the landmark it is today. It grew from a small village intersection to a bustling center of commerce and transportation.