Nabadiganta Township (Sector V)

[BengaliTiger]

How about a kind of marina/waterfront after the road? It would have been great. But i think that is not on their list.

[Sumanb]

Good pont .... I am just hoping that this stretch is not encroached upon keeping the Kolkata tradition. The front of SDF has also good vistas, but can you ever see it?

[sourav2010]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

Good pont .... I am just hoping that this stretch is not encroached upon keeping the Kolkata tradition. The front of SDF has also good vistas, but can you ever see it?

True..

Considering the overall condition of our city/state and more importantly the poor state of Sector V,it would be too much to expect something like that of Marina/Waterfront type of thing! Hope that a properly laid,wide road is built up which can ease the traffic situation that has become a nightmare over the years..

The basic roads and specially the bylanes in Sector V,are lying in pathetic state with potholed surfaces,hawkers and garbages dumped everywhere..a sudden visit to these areas during the day time,would give an impression that whether at all any administration exists here or not...so sad!

[studdmanster]

South City Projects says ‘not commercially viable’, builders point to vacant space in the area and underlying grim message

A proposed information technology logistics hub in Salt Lake’s Sector V has been scrapped because of “viability” concerns.

The decision brings to the fore the extent of unused built-up space in Bengal’s tech town — a telling statement at a time the new government is struggling to attract fresh investments.

The joint venture project between South City Projects, the developers of South City Mall, and the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), firmed up when the Left was in power, would have come up on 4.5 acres near the Technopolis building in Sector V.

“The project was scrapped about two months back as the private partners thought it was not commercially viable for them,” said Vivek Bharadwaj, the CMDA chief executive officer.

Atanu Mitra, head (legal), South City Projects, confirmed: “We can only say that the project was not commercially viable for us.”

The IT logistics project envisaged convention halls, hostel facilities for women who could stay back overnight and 24x7 plug-and-play centres.

The project would also have provided parking space for many cars. Around 5,000 cars are parked on the streets of Sector V in the absence of proper facilities.

“It was envisaged to provide support to the IT and ITes industries in Sector V. A women’s hostel is of utmost importance since the IT sector has a large number of women in its workforce. Many of them come from faraway places,” said the managing director of a company in Sector V.

The plug-and-play centres were supposed to provide readymade space to small and medium companies. Such companies usually take the centres on rent for a few months to gauge the business opportunities before committing to buy space. “It is not uncommon for large companies, either, to test the waters before investing large sums. These centres were an excellent idea,” said an official from a company.

The memorandum of understanding for the hub was signed in 2008 and a joint venture company named Calcutta Metropolitan South City Logistics Ltd was floated.

But the project never took off because of several hitches, starting with encroachment on the land that took about a year to be cleared. After that, the downturn delayed construction.

A few months ago, South City requested the CMDA to incorporate some changes in the original plan to make the project viable but the authority declined to do so, sources said. “It was not possible to change the initial plan,” Bharadwaj said.

CMDA sources claimed South City was not keen on building too many convention centres. “Three convention centres were supposed to come up. When they came to us earlier this year, they did not want to build so many convention halls. They wanted to add more commercial space,” he said.

The CMDA spoke to the state urban development ministry, which owns the land. The ministry told South City that it could exit if the terms were not suitable, the CMDA sources said.

South City had paid the CMDA Rs 14 crore for signing the deal — 10 per cent of the total Rs 140 crore it was supposed to pay. “We will return them the money,” said a CMDA official.

Builders said whatever the reason for shelving the particular project, the decision had shed light on the larger reality of vast built-up space lying empty in Sector V.

“About 2 million square feet of built-up space, out of a total 5 million square feet, is still lying vacant in Sector V. If you add Rajarhat, the volume is much more. The fact is, there is no demand for IT space,” said the chairman of a construction company that built one of Sector V’s landmark buildings.

The vacant space is an indication that the calculations of an investor boom after the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government accorded top priority to IT, on the basis of which office space was built, have gone awry.

“The scrapped hub would have added to the list of vacant built-up space as no new companies are coming to Bengal because of the government’s hands-off land policy and its decision not to accord SEZ status to companies,” said an official.

Even Infosys’s plan is hanging fire after the government refused to give its Rajarhat project SEZ status.

[Sumanb]

Again a poor reporting to relate two unrelatede things .... logically the land policy and SEZ policy of the state should increase the demand for leased space if other conditions remain the same.

I think the NDITA admin has no control on the master plan and bulding plan ... they have allowed multi storied buildings without considering the impact of higher traffic, food court, common open space which has transformed Sector V from good to worse place to conduct business in the last couple of years.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

Again a poor reporting

Negative reporting is the hall mark of newspapers reporting about Bengal. It's been going on for decades.

It looks like from the report that South City Projects wanted to "increase" the commercial area of the project and cut down on the convention space. So I guess they thought there would be more demand for commercial space than for convention space. So the viability is more about the "mix".

Originally Posted by Sumanb

I think the NDITA admin has no control on the master plan and bulding plan ... they have allowed multi storied buildings without considering the impact of higher traffic, food court, common open space which has transformed Sector V from good to worse place to conduct business in the last couple of years.

NDITA seems to be an useless organization.

[ppatra]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Negative reporting is the hall mark of newspapers reporting about Bengal. It's been going on for decades.

It looks like from the report that South City Projects wanted to "increase" the commercial area of the project and cut down on the convention space. So I guess they thought there would be more demand for commercial space than for convention space. So the viability is more about the "mix".



NDITA seems to be an useless organization.

I think there is no point of blaming media here. We have created enough negative perception about ourselves in last 4 decades. We allowed CPM to rule 34 years even if they destroyed industries. We might allow another 10-15 yrs (if not more) to TMC even if they continue to do the same. As long as we vote for 3rd class low-life politicians supported by 4th class intellectuals, negative perception would not go.


As far as the IT investment is concerned current govt's land policy should not be much of a concern. But perception about kolkata will keep most of the product companies un-interested. And anti-SEZ policy would be problem for indian service companies to come here. However I feel, last govt already cleared many SEZs where no investment really happened. How difficult it is for the govt to give at least 25 acres to each Wipro & Infosys in SP infocity SEZ, so they can at least start something. At least I think there are two more SEZs where no investment still not happened - Hind Motor & Batanagar SEZ.

[Sumanb]

Why a prospective investors would walk the extra mile to invest here (like buy your own land, when elsewhere the govt acquires the land for you, No SEZ (no benefits) when in other states there is no such restrictions) unless there is something very unique about Kolkata?

[Rajarshi77]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

Why a prospective investors would walk the extra mile to invest here (like buy your own land, when elsewhere the govt acquires the land for you, No SEZ (no benefits) when in other states there is no such restrictions) unless there is something very unique about Kolkata?

Exactly. Its competitive world.

[Jocg]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

Why a prospective investors would walk the extra mile to invest here (like buy your own land, when elsewhere the govt acquires the land for you, No SEZ (no benefits) when in other states there is no such restrictions) unless there is something very unique about Kolkata?

Yes you're right, the govt should give more benefits to the industry like free electricity, free land, free water, no taxes of any kind and best of all free labour. And also try to give them free capital.
What ever you give to the industrialists they are always unsatisfied. I know an industrialist who always says that he is making a huge loss, but his bank balance is always increasing. I wish I could also make a loss like that.

[avishar]

What is an IT Logistics Hub anyway?It talked about Women's hostels,car parking,convention halls and plug-play centres?Thats a lot of things to pack in,in one single place.

[avishar]

Lets leave aside conflicting newspaper reports and deal with facts.This is the office absorption data for Kolkata for Q3 this year.Its not great,but its not bad either.Q3 has been bad though absorption-wise.This is from Cushman and Wakefield.

LINK REMOVED BY IU - MALWARE DETECTED

[studdmanster]

holy cow....rajarhat is f**kin cheap!!!

[samrat_m]

Great report, Avi

As usual, CBD, Bypass & Connectors are going great guns in absorption.
Rajarhat being the cheapest still needs more occupancy. I don't understand why vacancy level is not below 10 yet. Infrastructural issues or commuting problems maybe!!!
But Sector V really needs to pull up its socks. Around 25% vacant space is not good by any standards, even when the rentals are half of CBD Areas and much less than Bypass. It has the highest existing & upcoming supply as well, so there is a possibility that excess supply may further increase vacancy levels.

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by samrat_m

Great report, Avi

As usual, CBD, Bypass & Connectors are going great guns in absorption.
Rajarhat being the cheapest still needs more occupancy. I don't understand why vacancy level is not below 10 yet. Infrastructural issues or commuting problems maybe!!!
But Sector V really needs to pull up its socks. Around 25% vacant space is not good by any standards, even when the rentals are half of CBD Areas and less than Bypass.

To me it seems commuting problem...if they cud speed up the work of metro, Vacancy level will come down...

[Rajarshi77]

Surprised to see higher vacancy rates in Sec V. More concerning is the fact that under construction space in Sec V is more. In nine months it could absorb only 1 lakh sq.ft. Imagine how much time it will take to absorb 53 lakh sq.ft under construction! Absorbtion rate in Rajarhat is almost 9 times higher than Sec V. Probably Sec V will see drop in rentals.

Also PC Connector and Rashbehari Connector seems to be witnessing the highest construction activity.

Location Under construction/Stock (%)
CBD 11%
Park Circus Connector 106%
Rashbehari Connector 120%
Rajarhat 53%
Sec V 57%
Total 46%

[Sumanb]

Huge supply at Sector V, infrastructure problem (narrow roads), encroached footpath, traffic jams and competition from cheaper location like New Town has made the vacancy rate at Sector V higher. Its time the agency made some plan to spruce up Sector V.

[Sumanb]

Originally Posted by Jocg

Yes you're right, the govt should give more benefits to the industry like free electricity, free land, free water, no taxes of any kind and best of all free labour. And also try to give them free capital.
What ever you give to the industrialists they are always unsatisfied. I know an industrialist who always says that he is making a huge loss, but his bank balance is always increasing. I wish I could also make a loss like that.

For the IT SEZ at least, the companies are only looking for tax break. To my knowledge they offer same salary to all employees irrespective of if they work from SEZ or non-SEZ, and they paid for all utilities and capital equipment (with the only concession may be on the tax component).

So, what the govt looses by tax can recoup by Income Tax on the employees and their Sales & Service taxes on the consumption.

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

Huge supply at Sector V, infrastructure problem (narrow roads), encroached footpath, traffic jams and competition from cheaper location like New Town has made the vacancy rate at Sector V higher. Its time the agency made some plan to spruce up Sector V.

NDITA is useless agency, it makes grand plans but can't execute even simple things.

[Suncity]

Ecostation

image hosted on flickr

Bengal Ambuja Ecostation, Nabadiganta by seaview99, on Flickr