Bengal Shristi to invest Rs 5,000 cr in tier II, III cities

KOLKATA, JUNE 3, 2009: Kolkata-based Bengal Shristi Infrastructure Development plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore in developing integrated properties in a number of tier II and tier III cities across West Bengal. Buoyed by the prospects of business activities in these areas, the company would develop more than one million sq ft of commercial spaces in places such as Durgapur, Asansol, Ranigunj, Krishnanagar and Haldia over the next couple of years.

“A number of banks, IT & ITeS, telecom and finance companies have lined up expansion plans in these cities, due to rentals, which are as low as one-third or even less than that in metro cities. If these companies get the right kind of infrastructure, which is comparable to that of bigger cities but at the same time cheaper, it would make business sense for them,” Hemant Kanoria, director of Bengal Shristi told FC Estate.

Bengal Shristi’s integrated properties are coming up in Durgapur, Asansol, Krishnanagar, Ranigunj and Haldia. Among the companies that are moving in or are likely to move in include HDFC Bank, SBI, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Webworld, ICICI Home Finance, LIC Home Finance, Apeejay Finance, Dishnet Wireless, Aircel, Reliance Petro, Canon, India Bulls, Sahara Home Finance and Motorola.

“The advantages are manifold. These companies want to expand and know there is a huge market beyond metro cities. Besides, they are also under tremendous cost pressures. In the integrated properties that we plan to develop, these companies would get developed commercial spaces with many amenities, where rentals are reasonable, apartments in the same complex where their employees and officials can stay, shopping and entertainment and club facilities within the same premises. The companies can ask their people to migrate to tier II and tier III cities where the cost of living is lower, travel time to workplace is much less and the happiness index in higher. So it makes business sense,” Kanoria explained.

Mayank Saksena, associate director of real estate consultancy company, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, also subscribes to Kanoria’s views. “There has been lot of movements towards tier II and tier III cities in the commercial space, ever since the slowdown broke out last October. A number of BPOs and KPOs are moving to cities such as Bhubaneswar. And this trend will continue in the years to come,” Saksena said.

Kanoria said that a number of companies have approached them, looking for modern infrastructure to set up disaster management centres and back offices in smaller cities. “In our Durgapur property, for instance, those companies, which bought commercial spaces also bought the residential apartments in the premises. This is a test case and an indication of the way things are moving,” Kanoria pointed out.

Riverbank to invest Rs.30 bn on Calcutta Riverside project

Kolkata, Dec 31 : Riverbank Developers Ltd will invest Rs.30 billion (Rs.3,000 crore) to develop the Calcutta Riverside project at Batanagar in West Bengal, a top official said here Wednesday. Located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly river in South 24-Parganas district, the entire project on 262 acres will have a hotel, malls, residential apartments, hospital, township and an IT special economic zone (SEZ).

Riverbank is a joint venture entity between Calcutta Metropolitan Group (CMG) and footwear major Bata India.“The project will be funded through private equity, debt and cash flow from sales,” CMG managing director Sumit Dabriwala told reporters. “The first phase of the redevelopment should be completed by 2011,” Dabriwala said.

Riverbank has made a joint management contract with the Intercontinental Hotels Group for developing the proposed hotel and service apartments in Batanagar.The cost of construction for the hotel and the service apartments is slated to be around Rs.1.75 billion (Rs.175 crore) Dabriwala said. “The hotel would be ready in 36 months.”

Bengal to focus on developing small, medium towns

KOLKATA, 21th November, 2008: The West Bengal Government has decided to accord top priority to the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to benefit more people with urban li festyle.

Announcing this after a review meeting of JNNURM, convened by the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the State's Urban Development Minister Mr Asok Bhattacharya said that the Chief Minister would soon urge the Union Urban Development Minister, M r S. Jaipal Reddy, to divert at least Rs 500 crore for UIDSSMT from allocation for upgrading small and medium towns.

While Rs 200 crore had already been allocated for developing slums, the Centre has been urged to divert another Rs 200 crore from JNNURM. Mr Bhattacharya said that under JNNURM Rs 5,700 crore had already been spent since its launch in 2005 through 197 pr ojects sanctioned, of which Centre contributed Rs 2,782 crore and the rest was contributed by the State Government.
Price hike resulted in cost overrun of the projects forcing the State Government to spend Rs 871 crore so far and this would shoot up to Rs 1,200 crore by 2012 when the JNNURM programme would end.

The Chief Minister underscored areas like providing urban home for the poor, development of slums, besides developing drainage and sewerage system, while a decision has been taken for securing Rs 1.900 crore loan from the Asian Development Bank.

Of this 35 per cent would be provided by the State Government as matching grant. In next four years of the tenure of JNNURM, the State Government would set off projects worth Rs 4,500 crore, the Minister said adding that Rs 500 crore of it would be spent for developing small and medium towns. (PTI)

Buddhadeb welcomes private investment in low-cost housing

Kolkata, Nov 3: Welcoming more private investment in low-cost housing, West Bengal chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee here Monday exhorted everyone involved in the real estate business to ensure housing for the poor and middle-income groups. "In a country where one billion people live in substandard houses, one million stay in temporary or make-shift houses and 50 percent of the population does not have proper housing, our main concern should be how to provide housing for the poor,” Bhattacharjee said at the opening session of the 36th World Congress on Housing Science here.

He said though the state has low cost technology to make low cost houses, every effort should be made to lower the costs further so that housing becomes affordable to the masses. He welcomed more housing in the state through the public-private-partnership (PPP) model and cited the example of Shapoorji Pallonji and DLF, which has started a PPP project in the state. “The government alone cannot solve this problem of housing. The government alone cannot provide housing for all,” Bhattacharjee added.

Arcelor-Mittal, others keen to invest

Leading investors from sectors like steel, telecom and banking have evinced interest in setting up offices in the upcoming IT hub of West Bengal, Rajarhat. Speaking at the session Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said, big companies, including the world's largest steel producer Arcelor-Mittal, want to to set up offices in Rajarhat. "ICICI, Mittal, Jindal and Mittal's want to set up offices in Rajarhat," the chief minister said. However, with land prices rising, providing land to the industries was a major challenge, he added. "We have a problem of land in urban areas. Prices of land are increasing everyday. It is a complicated issue. Gautam Deb is asking for Rs 7 crore per acre for land," the chief minister said referring to his state housing minster. Another problem faced by the real estate sector in recent days was scarce bank finance, he added.

Gautam Deb, minister for housing and public health engineering, said areas under Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) alone faced a shortage of 90,000 dwelling units, and the state could construct only 20,000 units. Foreign investors would visit Rajarhat and adjoining areas, Deb said. Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of the Lok Sabha, said, by the end of the 10th five year plan, the shortage of dwelling units in West Bengal was estimated to be 24.7 million units. This could increase to 26.35 million by the end of the 11th five year plan, with about 99 per cent of the shortage concentrated among the economically weaker sections of the society, Chatterjee added. The total investment required for urban housing was estimated at Rs 3.16 lakh crore by the end 2012, said Chatterjee.

Housing policy soon

The West Bengal government may introduce a new housing policy soon. Speaking later on the sidelines of the seminar organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata, I N Chakraborty, secretary of the housing department of West Bengal, said the state was in the process of framing a new housing policy, on the lines of National Hosing and Habitat policy. According to Chakraborty, the state will face a shortage of seven million dwelling units by the end of the 11th five year plan, against 30 million nationally.

Also, Bengal could consider framing regulatory framework for special residential zone (SRZ), in the lines of special economic zone (SEZ) , which should spell out incentives and regulatory framework to be provided under the policy, he said. "There should be multiple stake holders, including private, institutional and cooperative sectors, in the new housing policy, which should be framed in consultation with the local bodies," Chakraborty said. The recommendations followed a recent inter-state housing policy meet held in Rajasthan. According to rough estimates, Bengal will need an investment of Rs 7,400 crore to complete the New Town satellite township east of the city.

50,000 crore investment potential

Till now, about Rs 1,435 crore has been spent, and in the next 20 years the total investment in the area would be Rs 50,000 crore. This apart, the housing policy should give more emphasis to the housing needs of the slum dwellers. In this regard, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a Central government scheme for urban regeneration, has also started projects on special area development in the state. Some of the other recommendations of the inter-state housing meet included setting up a dedicated fund for housing finance, setting up mortgage finance company and new foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines in the housing sector. Also, a single window clearance was needed for foreign funds, Chakraborty said.

H V Patodia, president of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, said with rapid urnbanisation, one big challenge would be providing affordable housing to city dwellers, especially the poor. In India alone, about 100 million people lived in slums and slum-like conditions, and the number could touch 200 million by 2020.