Okhla, short for Old Canal Housing and Land Authority, is an urban neighbourhood located by the Okhla barrage in South East Delhi, near the border between

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. Okhla has lent its name to the nearby planned township of New Okhla Industrial Development Authority or Noida. Okhla is an assembly constituency.

About

Okhla is one of the oldest inhabited areas in Delhi near the bank of Yamuna River. This can be judged from the making of Okhla canal ( Agra Canal) by the British in 1874, presently known as Okhla Head.

History

The Okhla barrage is a barrage that was developed by the British. It is also the starting point of the Agra Canal built in 1874. Today it is also the location of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, and further down the canal towards

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

, the Keetham Lake National Bird Sanctuary. The present campus of Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university, was established here in 1925. Also located in the neighbourhood are the NSIC, IIIT Delhi, Govind Ballabh Pant Engineering College, Lotus Temple, and the Okhla railway station.

Okhla Industrial Estate

Okhla Industrial Estate, an industrial domain of New Delhi in South Delhi was established by National Small Industries Corporation and was one of the 12 such estates being developed across India to encourage small industries. Construction work at the site began in 1952 and it was finally inaugurated in 1958, and in time became synonymous to growth of small scale industries in region. Today it is divided in three phases.

Phases

Okhla Industrial Estate Phase I and Phase II is one of the 28 industrial areas of Delhi, as per the Master Plan of 2001. Revenue earners from this base include ready-made garment exporters and leather garment exporters, besides other segments of the industry such as pharmaceutical manufacturing units, plastic and packaging industries, printing presses, machinery manufacturers, call centers, MNCs Office, Bank, and others. Okhla Industrial Estate Phase III spreads over and is a modest industrial foundation laid out by the British architect Walter George, who was famous for the planning and construction of Parliament House, North, and South Blocks.

Overview

The whole industrial area was named after the main Okhla Village, in South Delhi. Nearby areas have now extensively grown into neighbourhoods like Jogabai extension, Batla House, Okhla Vihar, Zakir Nagar, Jamia Nagar, Abul Fazal Enclave, Shaheen Bagh, Kalindi Colony, and Kalindi Kunj. Okhla has a heavily

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population and shows a high linguistic literacy rate. It is a state assembly constituency, part of the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.

Neighbourhoods

East of Kailash, New Friends Colony, Nehru Place, Kalkaji, Abul Fazal Enclave, Sukhdev Vihar, Greater Kailash, Govindpuri, Sriniwaspuri, Tuglaqabad, Sarita Vihar, Jasola, Shaheen Bagh, Jaitpur, Madanpur, Badarpur, Zakir Nagar, Okhla Vihar, Ghaffar Manzil Colony, Haji colony, Ishwar Nagar and Harkesh Nagar are the surrounding areas.

Wildlife sanctuaries

Okhla Bird Sanctuary is a nearby Bird Park and Wildlife Sanctuary located in Noida, where during the month of September thousands of migratory birds including shovellers, pintail, common teal, gadwall, and blue-winged teal visit the area every year.

Hospitals

There are many hospitals in the area, including Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Al-Shifa, Cribs Hospital , Holy Family Hospital, Fortis Escorts, and other small hospitals and clinics.

Hygiene

Civic hygiene has been a concern in Okhla and people struggle with overflowing garbage. The overused landfills in the area have been termed as dark spots. New Indian Express, in a July 2021 report stated, "The 22km stretch of Yamuna from Wazirabad to Okhla in Delhi, which is less than two per cent of the river length, accounts for about 80 per cent of the pollution in the river."

Connectivity

Okhla is well connected via roadways and railways and is not too far away from the IGI Airport. Business districts such as Nehru Place, Connaught Place and Lajpat Nagar are considerably close resulting in good access to public services. Okhla is also connected to the Delhi Metro Magenta Line Network - Jasola Vihar-Shaheen Bagh, Okhla Vihar, Jamia Millia Islamia and Sukhdev Vihar. Delhi Transport Corporation buses via various Bus stops and terminus are operating from Okhla.