In the early 1980s the Government of India realized that the rapid rate at which Delhi was expanding would result in chaos. So they planned to develop residential and industrial areas around the capital to reduce the burden of rapid development on the Capital. The two areas which were developed were Gurgaon (across the border with Haryana) and Noida (across the border with Uttar Pradesh).
As a planned expansion, Noida's infrastructure and utilities was carefully laid out. However, the 90s saw huge growth in the Indian economy, and migration to cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai exceeded planning estimates. Noida was developed to be able to accommodate population growth for 20–25 years. But, with the massive influx to Delhi, it was overloaded in just 15 years.
The Government of Uttar Pradesh then decided to incorporate the city of Greater Noida, as an extension to Noida, but with better planning, incorporating the lessons learned from the Noida development. The idea was to create a world class city. The city was planned to be situated approximately 25 km from Noida. A railway stationTemplate:Nr boraki and an International Airport were included later in the plan intending to develop Greater Noida as an independent city, however, the airport was scrapped in early 2012 by the newly elected Samajwadi Party. Initially, the city developed rapidly, but due to political and economic instabilities, the development slowed down appreciably. However, it has started to grow again, though at a more moderate pace.
Greater Noida is a planned township. Roads are wide with service lanes for every major road. The sectors are named by letters of the Greek alphabet. All cabling and utilities are run underground. Alpha, Beta and Gamma are the oldest sectors of this city. The present GNIDA office is situated in Gamma II sector just opposite to the historical village Rampur Jagir/Jahangir where the great revolutionary Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil lived for some time
