In seventies Sonipat had been a quiet town with very few economic centres except for Atlas Cycle Industries, ECE:  Birla factory. While cities like Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra had one or the other catalysts like handloom industry, rice shellers, dairy production units etc. Sonipat did not have much to boast about then. One major disadvantage was that while other towns were in the close vicinity of National Highway NH1 (now NH 44), Sonipat was established 8 Kms away from it in the west direction. Two state highways connected Sonipat city with NH1 which was used for travelling to Delhi on the south side and Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab on the North side. One junction called Bhalgarh was used for travelling to Delhi while Murthal was used for travelling in the north direction.   

Sonipat lagged behind in creating job opportunities and hence most of the working population in Sonipat had to travel to Delhi for earning their livelihood. And since the per capital income in Sonipat was low, there were no fancy restaurants, branded outlets, shopping malls, multiplexes and even good educational institutions. 

In eighties, as rice exports from India rose, we started to see huge rice shellers coming up in Sonipat and around, namely Kohinoor (Satnam Overseas) Dawat (L.T. Overseas), KB Overseas and many more. With this large land parcels started getting acquired. Further, with a policy push from Haryana government, we saw multiple MSMEs. making Sonipat their home. Industrial estates set up by HSIIDC in Rai, Barhi and Kundli later gave an opportunity to manufacturers to commission plants to feed large scale industry.  

The transformation process that started in 80s got wings in 2000’s with education infrastructure getting a big  boost. We saw Jindal Law College, Rajiv Gandhi Education City (housing Ashoka University, SAM and other colleges), besides prestigious schools like Modern School, GD Goenka, DPS and Swarnprashtha public schools getting set up.Notably, this did not just cater to the population of Sonipat; even people from other cities and abroad started choosing these schools and other higher education institutions, considerably a great milestone. 

The development of Eastern Peripheral Expressway, also known as Kundli- Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway & Western Peripheral Expressway, also called Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressway (KGP), turned out to be the game changers for Sonipat. Through Manesar on NH8, Kundli on NH2, was connected to Rajasthan, Gujarat and beyond. KGP from Kundli to Ghaziabad and then Palwal provided further connectivity to Kundli(Sonipat) with Moradabad, Nainital. With linkage to Yamuna Expressway, connecting Mathura, Agra, Lucknow and beyond, Sonipat has become the epicentre. The connectivity of UER 2 (starting from Alipur on NH44) to Delhi Airport Terminal 3 via two tunnels on Dwarka Expressway, has truly fast-tracked Panipat &Sonipat’s connectivity with Delhi and Gurgaon. NH44(Jammu-Srinagar National Highway) takes you non-stop to Chandigarh and Punjab. 

Today, with both physical and social infrastructure making strides and industrial and warehousing development in the fast lane, Sonipat has truly arrived. I waited for 56 years to see this transformation happen to my hometown. Leveraging this super-connectivity, Maruti has commissioned its manufacturing unit in Kharkhoda (Sonipat) over 900 acres. With north Delhi becoming super expensive, people are migrating to Sonipat, especially as travel becomes easier and faster. The commuting between Sonipat and Delhi will further get a boost with Samaypur Badli(Delhi)- Sonepat metro link becoming operational by 2028. This will further motivate people working in Delhi to shift to Sonipat which has a lower cost of living. Taking note of this massive infra-connectivity push, many prominent developers have taken up residential developments in the region. Well known developers like Godrej, Eldeco, Omaxe, Ansal, TDI, have all launched their projects in Sonepat, with their inventories getting liquidated in no time. 

We at Torbit, have all through been advocating to invest in Tier 2 cities and today we reiterate that Sonipat will see a massive reshaping and even today, it is perhaps the best Tier 2 city to invest in Delhi -NCR.