One September morning in 2025, the city flooded. The sewage water crept into the sedan of the corporate employee and around the legs of the delivery driver, each struggling to make their way home. In a city like Gurugram (earlier Gurgaon) where you can buy your way out of anything, the urban infrastructure is what you still have no escape from. The day after the floods, while the CEO switched to an SUV to go to his workplace, the delivery rider still risked his life on the scooter. How does India’s richest city by per capita become its most unliveable?A blueprint for profitIn the 1990s, India’s turn toward neoliberal growth and the ‘Change of Land Use’ (CLU) policy permitted the conversion of cheap agricultural land into commercial and residential plots. Developers built offices, malls and gated townships on affordable and profitable lands, rather than where people needed them.As a result, residential spaces grew like a patchwork of disconnected buildings. There was no plan for a metro line, wider roads, footpaths, or for the protection of natural zones like the Aravallis. A city was built like isolated silos – corporate parks in one sector, housing in another – with only private automobiles to link them.A 2014 article ran a prophetic headline: Gurgaon on its deathbed: Haphazard model of development causes severe water crisis. A decade later, the water crisis remains an echo of the alarm that was ignored.The hierarchy of sufferingIt is not surprising that Gurugram has the highest vehicle ownership rate in the country, at 323 cars per 1,000 people. However, the public transport system did not grow alongside the city. While the rich escape the air and harsh weather in plush cars, the poor pay the price in health. Automobile-focused development and scattered residential spaces trapped those who cannot afford a four-wheeled vehicle. The middle class employee books a cab or takes a reluctant car loan, and the domestic worker takes the cycle or walks through the toxic air, monsoon floods and summer heat – one trading financial burdens for safety, the other risking their life anyway. Year after year, Gurugram’s monsoons stop us in our tracks. Without ecological protections for natural resources, the city cannot protect itself or those inhabiting it. Moreover, a waste emergency was declared in Gurugram in 2024 – a direct outcome of city-planning that was focused on profit rather than waste management system, roads, and water. The result is a sunken city year after year with trash dumps for residences.Data behind dysfunctionThe most brutal consequence of this development model is the walkability crisis, which invariably affects ‘lower’ caste individuals and migrant workers in low-paying jobs who often rely on walking. With a walkability score of 0.68/5, half of Gurgaon’s traffic deaths are pedestrians. In 2025, between January and September, 333 people died in road crashes across the city. Of these, 141 were pedestrians.The crisis extends beyond this. Vehicle exhaust alone contributes to 40% of the city’s deadly particulate pollution – a reminder of which we witness every winter. The 2025 statement by the housing and urban affairs minister that there are “no big issues” implies that the government continuously prioritizes private entities and car-centric development over human costs and the cost of human life. The crises here are not seen as issues but as occurrences that sustain the larger business model.One might ask, then: where does the Rs 3,800 crore spent on development go? Until the larger system – the car-dependent, profit-focused urban model without proper city planning – is addressed, the lack of public transport and coherent urban infrastructure will continue. Until the foundational flaw is addressed, public funds will continue to be spent on mitigating its consequences – like waterlogged streets and traffic deaths – with short term fixes rather than spending it on creating a city that is safe, accessible and liveable for all.A city built to live?Living in Gurugram, one tends to become hopeless: hopeless to live in an expensive city where one fears raising children or living with older parents. This is not an accident but a result of people being treated as customers, and profit being prioritised over life. Cities around the world have shown us this is not inevitable. Vienna planned for its everyday women’s needs, unlocking its economic participation, Singapore planned for its elderly, prioritising dignity and independence. These cities are planned for life. The question is: will Gurugram finally plan for people or will it continue to spend the public funds fixing problems caused by its profit-first design?Gayathri M.R. is an educator and researcher working on equity, education, and systemic exclusion.