Rohtak

Average annual rainfall in Rohtak city is 597 mm. Rohtak's climate shows extreme variation in temperature. It does not usually fall below freezing point in the winter months from November to February. In summer from April to June, the day temperature generally remains between 30 °C and 42 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded in Rohtak city was 47.2 °C (May 8, 1995) while the lowest recorded temperature is -0.5 °C (January 8, 2006).

Annual rainfall of the district is about 58 cm. The rainfall is unevenly distributed and decreases from south east to south west. The rainy season is from July to September. About 80% of the total rainfall is received during this period. Some rainfall is received from western disturbances during the winter season. Due to the low rainfall and its short duration, agricultural activities are mostly dependent upon canal irrigation and tubewells.[12]

The development of the area largely depends over the quality as well as quantity of ground water. As far as Rohtak District is concerned ground water occurs in semi-confined to unconfined aquifers. The unconfined aquifers are tapped by dugwells. While the semi-confined aquifers are tapped by shallow tubewells which are 22,000 in number.[12]

The Haryana Government has asked the Union Government to declare Haryana Sub-Region (HSR) a zone of strategic national interest. HSR consists of 35 urban centres, including Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panipat, Sonepat and Rohtak. The growth rate of urban population in the zone has been above 60 per cent, the highest among all the constituents of National Capital Region. These urban centres face a rapid growth in population as the workforce travels to work from here to the Capital.[14]

Sector 1 rohtak

In Rohtak old sectors are Sector 1, Sector 3, Sector 14, Sector 2, 4 are newly developed and new sectors 4 ext. 5, 6, 25 are being planned. Model Town, Patel Nagar, DLF Colony, Sector 1 and 14 are considered to be upmarket areas of the city. Entrance of Sector-14 is opposite to Gate number 2 of Maharshi Dayanand University.D PARK Model Town comprises all branded showrooms and one of best place to hangout in the city.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's hometown, Karnal, tops the cities shortlisted by the screening committee for the ‘smart city’ tag at a meeting. Faridabad was placed second while Gurgaon, Rohtak and Hisar could seize only the third spot. The Department of Urban Local Bodies asked for recommendations for smart city contenders from all municipal bodies.[15]

Rohtak's Ex Mayor Renu Dabla (presently Manmohan Goyal) has stated that the process adopted for the selection of Haryana districts for the Smart City project was biased and based on political considerations.[16]

View of D-Park, Model Town

Tiger yawning at Rohtak Zoo

The Municipal Corporation has prepared a strategy for future developments, that includes new residential areas, healthy environment, and maintained roads. Manohar Lal Khattar, the Haryana CM, formally launched the project on 17 March 2018. The ambitious, 6-km track, costing around Rs 316 crore, is set to come up on the Rohtak-Panipat line in 18 months, and the existing railway track will be replaced by a road, which will be built at the cost of Rs 8 crore.[17]

The city hosts the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS)and Civil Hospital, both of which are operated by the State Government. There are also various privately operated medical facilities. Pt B.D.Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak has situated at a distance of about 240  km from Chandigarh and about 70  km from Delhi on Delhi-Hissar-Sirsa-Fazilka National Highway (NH-10). It is the only major Institution for Medical Education and Research and a tertiary care centre for provision of specialised health care services not only to the people of the State of Haryana, but also to those from Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and western U.P. The Institute was started under the name of Medical College, Rohtak in the year 1960. For the first three years, the students were admitted to Medical College, Patiala which acted as a host Institution. In 1963, the students were shifted to Rohtak. In the subsequent years, multifaceted expansion measures have transformed the Institute into a fully developed centre of Medical Education and research in all the major disciplines of Medicine. In the year 1994, Medical College, Rohtak was renamed as Pt. B.D.Sharma, Medical College, Rohtak and subsequently, it was upgraded to a Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in the year 1995. Today Pt. B.D.Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak is a famous institution not only for medical education but also for the healthcare facilities both at the National as well as International level.

The Institute has a remarkably well-developed campus spread over an area of 350 acres of land. During the 50 years of its existence, Pt. B.D.Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak has witnessed a phenomenal growth achieving not only its designated goals but also in expanding its horizons to set newer objectives completely commensurable with the requirements of the National goal of “Health for all by 2020”.[18]

In NCR out of 108 towns only 33 towns have sewerage system and even in these 33 towns, the coverage can at best be classified as partial. The network coverage in some of the important cities in NCR includes NCT Delhi, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Panipat, Gurgaon, Rohtak, Sonepat and Alwar where Rohtak was completed 65% in 2001 and 90% in 2011 according to an official report.[19][20]

The development of Rohtak caused controversy in 2013 as a result of the allegedly disproportionate number of state development projects that have been awarded to the city by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was born in a nearby village. This has led to severe criticism by both the opposition parties and some members of the governing Indian National Congress party, who have attacked Hooda for bias.[21] Rao Inderjit Singh, a BJP leader from South Haryana, used Right to Information requests to determine that from a total of 5,135 announcements of schemes in the state, 2,045 went to the three districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat. These areas were in Hooda's own constituency and that of his son, the Lok Sabha MP Deepeder Singh Hooda. Of the 3,356 completed schemes, 1,560 were from these three districts whereas 1,796 schemes were completed in the rest of the state.[22][23] Ambala MP Selja Kumari[24] is also against the region-specific and biased development of Rohtak.[25][26]

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has spent over Rs 3.4 billion on the development of Rohtak. Up until 31 December 2010 collected Rs 3.22 billion as External Development Charges(EDC) in Rohtak and spent almost Rs 6.63 billion of the EDC fund.[27]

However, the most developed cities of the state based expenditure on infrastructure over the last 15 years are Gurgaon, Faridabad, Hisar, Panchkula, Panipat and Ambala.[28][29][30]

As of 2018, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has developed an Industrial Model Township (IMT). MNCs like Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Suzuki Motorcycle, Nippon Carbide, Amul, Lakshmi Precision Screws and Aisin Automotive launched work on projects.[31]

Maruti is developing a mega research and development facility at Rohtak. The progress as R C Bhargava, non-executive chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, says "We will be able to do research and development and testing comparable to anything Japan has. We used to send all our models to Japan for testing; all that can be done here. There will be saving of time and money."[32]

Rohtak is connected to seven cities by three national highways NH 9, NH 709, NH 352 (old NH 10, NH71, and NH71A) and two State Highways (SH16 and SH18). National Highway 9 from New Delhi to Rohtak is upgraded to six lanes with 30 km Rohtak City Bypass, so that the vehicles travelling between New Delhi and Hisar do not have to enter Rohtak city. National Highway 9 from Rohtak to Hissar and several cities of Punjab is being widened to a four-lane highway.

Three National Highways, NH-9 (Malaut, Punjab to Askot in Uttarakhand), NH-709 (Rajgarh, Haryana to Panipat, Haryana) and NH-352 (Narwana to Rewari) pass through the city. Rohtak is connected to Delhi through NH-9, and currently the road is being widened to six lanes by NHAI, with the plans to develop the entire corridor as an industrial area. NH-352 From Rewari to Rohtak is 4 lanes, and NH-709 from Rohtak to Panipat is 4 lanes.

Rohtak railway station

Delhi rohtak railway line

Rohtak City is a railway junction with connections to Delhi, Panipat, Rewari, Bhiwani and Jind converging on the city. Rohtak is connected to Bahadurgarh through Delhi line, to Gohana through Panipat line and Jhajjar through Rewari line. Delhi and Jind connections are part of the Delhi-Fazilka line, and the line is double tracked from Delhi to Bhatinda, Punjab, India, and is electrified between Delhi and Bhatinda. All other lines are single track and electrified i.e. Rohtak Rewari Line, Rohtak Hisar Line (via Bhiwani).[34]

Rohtak Junction railway station is served by three Shatabdi Express services (New Delhi Moga Shatabdi Express, New Delhi–Firozpur Shatabdi Express and New Delhi Ludhiana Shatabdi Express) and Ajmer Chandigarh Garib Rath Express.[35]

The railway track between New Delhi and Rohtak has been electrified. EMU services has been running between the two cities since March,2013.[36]

There is currently no commercial airport serving the city. The state govt has shown interests in building a Greenfield Cargos Airport at the Meham town to serve this city and the AAI has given consent in principle for this. The nearest International Airport is Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi approx.75 km.

• Baba Mast Nath University, private university established in 2012[43]
• Maharishi Dayanand University, established in 1976 and named after the saint Dayananda Saraswati[44]