They may have wider roads, gardens and towering buildings but satellite townships developing in the neighbourhood of metropolitan cities are no better when it comes to basic necessities like water supply, electricity, health facilities and transport.

With prices of real estate spiraling, developers have shifted focus to satellite towns but experts say authorities and planners have not given adequate thought towards infrastructure and issues like water supply, electricity, transport and other social and developmental aspects, while allowing the growth of new apartments or housing colonies.

With major cities facing a severe land crunch, suburban and satellite towns have proliferated but developers and civic authorities seem to have given planned development a go by and most such cities now face civic, social and developmental problems. Gurgaon, Noida and Greater Noida, near Delhi and Salt Lake near Kolkata are leading the pack of cities, which has been the focus of alternate real estate development along with Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chandigarh among several others.

An indication of the real estate boom is the recent announcement by Dubai-based realty firm Al Fajer Properties to invest up to one billion dollars to develop commercial and townships projects in India through joint ventures.

"What is important is that checks should be done so that no hap-hazard constructions takes place. Take for example, buffer zone surrounding Delhi. Even though there is an NCR plan giving guidelines for development, no body has bothered to implement it. One can see that there is no check of land use in Gurgaon or any other areas," states K T Gurumukhi, former chief planner, town and country planning.