Aurangabad Gates Open for Business

A once dusty town, at the cusp of where the West ends and South starts, is slowly opening its gates to industry, discovers Achal Dhruva

Synonymous with the world famous heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora Caves, Aurangabad is a city still uniquely steeped in tradition, yet taking its first tentative steps towards the new economy. Part of the original Nizam state of Hyderabad, Aurangabad along with the six other districts of Marathwada were merged with Maharashtra after the 1960 reorganisation of states, by virtue of having a major Marathi speaking population.

Biwi-Ka-Makbara

However, step into the city of Aurangabad and you wonder whether you are in the local version of Lucknow. Indeed Aurangabad is more of a ‘tehzeeb’ than a city. The influence of Nizamshahi and the easygoing lifestyle that came along with it has not yet completely disappeared. The minarets, maqbaras and the numerous bazaars dotting the cityscape lend a very distinctive touch to the older parts of the city as also the trademark Indian congestion, traffic, chaos, and the various flea markets and Meena Bazaars.

It is not surprising if you suddenly hear some strange parlance immortalised by Mehmood in his many movies - this typical Hyderabadi dialect is still fairly en vogue in the older quarters of the city. As they say, you can change the exterior but how do you change the soul? In Maharashtra and probably in entire Western India itself, this unique brand of ‘Dakkhani’ as is it called is spoken only in Marathwada and specifically in Aurangabad.

Aurangabad had a major brush with history when it almost became the capital of the country when Mohammad Bin Tughlaq brought his capital to Daulatabad on the outskirts of the city from Delhi. But the mega plan was doomed to flop because of severe and crippling water shortages, inadequate infrastructure as well as the middle- of- nowhere nature of the place.

The country it seemed had condemned Aurangabad also to history along with Tughlaq for a long while in the interim when it disappeared from the scene before ‘Big Business’ rested its benign gaze on it.The tourism boom has since converted it into a veritable ‘Jewel of Marathwada.’

Sculptures at Elora, Kailash Temple

Exquisite carvings adorning Biwi-ka-Makbara

Statue of Shivaji on the Jalna Road

Makkai Gate, one of the 52 gates in Aurangabad

Water Fountain at Panchakki

Minaret inside Daulatabad Fort

Bajaj Auto, followed by Garware, Videocon set up huge plants in the Walunj area a couple of decades ago to usher in a generational change in the city as well as in the mindset of its residents. Soon to follow were some Pharma biggies in the Paithan area with the likes of Lupin setting up major Formulation and Research and Development facilities there. The station area as well as Chikalthana MIDC Industrial areas were also booming with the advent of ancillary suppliers to these industries that started functioning there. For some time it seemed the city was raking in the ‘moolah.’

However the modern day Tughlaqs sitting in Mantralaya 400 kilometres away in Mumbai didn’t realise it was too good to last. With the infrastructure crumbling and the population burgeoning to the extent that one survey rated Aurangabad as the fastest growing city in the decade of 1981-1991 (even faster than Bangalore), it was only a matter of time before business voted with its feet.

Also the New economy did not take to Aurangabad as easily as it took to the bigger cities of Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. In due course of time, change did come about but slowly. While Jayekwadi Water project brought relief to parched souls of the area, business saw a resurgence with new areas like CIDCO Development Area modelled on New Delhi, complete with a swanky Connaught Place-type Central Business District. Companies like Johnson and Johnson, Hughes Telecom, Reliance Infocom (launching Wireless Local Loop), Wockhart and breweries like Fosters set up shop in Aurangabad.

The Maharashtra government as if to atone for past deeds of omission has suddenly decided to catapult Aurangabad into the forefront with a new STP (Software Technology Park) and also newer sops for business and small scale industries. Tourism, the traditional ‘money spinner’, is also receiving a new impetus.

For the first time Aurangabad Festival was organised last month, an initiative of the local community, Aurangabad Hotels and Restaurant Association, Tourism Guild, Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture, MTDC and other government agencies. The two-day festival clubbed along with the annual two-day Ellora Festival was held at the historic Soneri Mahal, within the expansive Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University with a backdrop of the Aurangabad Caves hillock.

The festival is an effort at highlighting the rich cultural heritage, handicrafts, handlooms, monuments and other myriad attractions to accord the city the desired recognition from both national and international tourists. Aurangabad also popular as The City of Gates, has a total of 52 gates, sentinels of its glorious past. One of the most stunning monuments in Biwi-ka-Makbara. A mini replica of the Taj, the magnificent edifice houses the tomb of Aurangzeb’s wife Rabia-ud-Durrani and is surrounded with spacious well planned Mughal gardens with axial ponds, fountains, water channels, broad pathways and pavilions.

Two other interesting tourist spots are Pan Chakki, the 17th Century watermill and the Aurangabad Caves. An intriguing watermill, Pan Chakki is famous for its underground water channel, which traverses more than eight kilometres from its source in the mountains. The channel culminates in an artificial waterfall that powers the mill. A mosque and a series of dancing water fountains are housed in the inner enclosure.

Dating back to the third Century AD, nestling among the hills, Aurangabad Caves, though not as expansive as Ajanta and Ellora, offer a panoramic view of the city and a bird’s eye view of the imposing Biwi-ka-Makbara. The 12 Buddhist caves are of interest on account of Tantric influences evident in the iconography and architectural designs of the caves.

After a boom period in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, tourism in Aurangabad has been under the weather and was particularly hard hit following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and subsequent travel advisories. Despite a figure of three lakh tourists annually, the numbers are far below the potential of Aurangabad, which is a perfect gateway for historical, religious, leisure and nature tourism.

The other attractive feature of Aurangabad is the fairly low rack rates of hotels with tariff in 5-star properties ranging from Rs 1,700 for a single room to Rs 4,000 for a suite. Besides the three five-Star properties there are quite a number of three and four- star properties. The city has a high number of budget hotels with more than 17,000 rooms in the budget category.

Soneri Mahal, Venue of the Ellora-Aurangabad Festival

While the accommodation segment of the hospitality industry has grown by leaps and bounds, the restaurant scene has not quite picked up and there is no nightlife to speak about in the city, which more or less bears a deserted look after 9 p.m. In the past couple of years the fast food culture has made its entry though a home delivery of pizza from Domino’s can get the entire building to congregate with curiosity.

Eating out is still an alien culture in a city where the spending power strata is dominated by Marwaris though the younger generation is changing all that. Besides the restaurants attached to the star properties there are a few stand-alone speciality restaurants like Mingling on Jalna Road serving tasty imaginative Indian and Chinese food; Tandoor Restaurant and Bar on Station Road serving excellent Mughlai and butter chicken dishes; Food Lovers, near the station, a garden restaurant with wonderful rustic ambience serving good Punjabi and Chinese food.

However the ‘in-thing’ is to drive to the numerous garden restaurants and dhabbas dotting the outskirts of the city. Bageecha on the Mumbai-Aurangabad highway with sprawling lawns and excellent veg and non-veg fare is a very popular eating joint. Also the number of bars is quite high but most unfortunately they are hardcore drinking joints. The pub culture has yet to catch on.

All said and done, Aurangabad, a destination with a perfect blend of business and leisure, is a sleeping giant. Will Aurangabad break its shackles of Nizamshahi and look at the 21st century through the prism of IT and tourism, is where lies the real challenge for the city.

( With inputs from Pravin Sathe)
Photographs: Sherwin Noronha and Achal Dhruva