Kolkata Project Update II - project news from Kolkata

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[Suncity]

DLF to bring Hilton brand to Kolkata
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2109216.cms

Real estate giant DLF, which will enter the capital market on June 11 with its public issue, today announced an investment of Rs 3,000 crore for developing two hotels and a service apartment here.

The company would set up a luxury hotel, a budget hotel and service apartments here for which it would invest Rs 3,000 crore, DLF Commercial Developers Ltd Chairman A S Minocha told reporters.

While the budget hotel would have 320 rooms, the luxury one would have 250 rooms. The hotels will be set up under the Hilton brand.

DLF has formed a joint venture with the US-based hospitality major Hilton last year to foray into hotel business.

Minocha said the entire complex, next to ITC Sonar Bangla, would be ready in the next three years and land was being obtained by the company.

DLF has also got approval for setting up a textile SEZ in Dankuni. The company was also diversifying into the areas of life insurance and wind energy.

[kolkata]

Anybody has any idea if there has been any change in plans for South City Projects? The website mentions an additional 15 storied tower to the existing 4, 35 storied towers...

South City, with its four 35-storey and one 15-storey residential towers.....
http://www.southcityprojects.com/sou..._overview.html

[kolkata]

- edit

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by kolkata

Anybody has any idea if there has been any change in plans for South City Projects? The website mentions an additional 15 storied tower to the existing 4, 35 storied towers...

That's been there for some time now on the website. Maybe they have some future plans?

[Suncity]

Unitech site construction
from google group

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[btirthankar]

Originally Posted by kolkata

Anybody has any idea if there has been any change in plans for South City Projects? The website mentions an additional 15 storied tower to the existing 4, 35 storied towers...

Definitely Yes (from official sources). There is an addl. 15 storied HIG tower coming up over the club. This was a closely guarded secret all along. Existing buyers did show some resentment over it saying that will block their panoramic skyline-view. As long they are getting to use the FAR, the more the merrier.



BTW South City as we all know is a benchmark project and a trend starter and a daring initiative among the local developer community. Way back in 2001 they (Emami+Merlin+Shrachi+Sureka+Bachhawat+Khetawat) came together as a consortium and bookings were invited in 2003 just on gut feeling that there is a market for such a product.

[kolkata]

Originally Posted by btirthankar

BTW South City as we all know is a benchmark project and a trend starter and a daring initiative among the local developer community. Way back in 2001 they (Emami+Merlin+Shrachi+Sureka+Bachhawat+Khetawat) came together as a consortium and bookings were invited in 2003 just on gut feeling that there is a market for such a product.

The market for such a product may have not been as ripe as in Delhi/Mumbai but with the status of the booking of over 75% sold doesn't look like they have done an absolute mis-calculation.. over an above the luxury residential tower Bel Air has been completely sold out...

[kolkata]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Unitech site construction
from google group ....

Nice update Sun and thanx for sharing.. looks like this are part of Unitech gardens Phase 1 built on 12 acres... is supposed to be completed by Dec 2007. The pictures show 17th.. is it May .. ??? in that case DEC 2007 does look at bit doubtful..

[kolkata]

DLF which promises to build the likes of Gurgaon in Dankuni has come out with some rehabilitation schemes to tackle the growing resistence from farmers .. or not sure should i say political resistence . ..

DLF-KMDA publishes a booklet detailing rehabilitation package..

What Tata Motors had failed to do for Singur, DLF-KMDA consortium has done it already for its Dankuni mega project.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryP...a-bd92f0b71827

But this opposition(not in right way though) has done some good to the poor people losing their land.. with the biggies now accepting to share a part of their profits.. JSW recently giving in a good rehabilitation package and now DLF ...

Textile SEZ in Dankuni gets in-principle nod..
http://news.oneindia.in/2007/06/08/d...181304611.html

The Opposition and the goverment should work together to see that these promises gets implemented ...

[chitown's finest]

i cant wait for west bengal to catch up to the rest of india in modernization. Kolkata is just plain pathetic compared to the world.

[Cov Boy]

Why brown? Looks awful that colour.

A white or cream colour (touches of red/orange) scheme would be better.

[kolkata]

Should do some good to the transportation infrastructure to/from airport if the following is implemented. Should have been done in the first place ... but chose the suburban trains instead..
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//...ow/2113213.cms

This news will cheer fliers. Very soon, you may get a Metro train straight to the NSCBI airport — much like London’s Heathrow.

Metro Rail officials are planning to extend operations till the airport by using the existing track for suburban trains.

The proposal of extending Metro operations by using the circular railway network seems a real possibility because it is the airport authority which actually mooted the idea. Now, the proposal will be placed before the railways so that Metro can zoom up to the airport.

“Since there is a ready infrastructure, Metro railway will find it useful. They might need to add a few things to get it operational, though. Once that is done, Metro would be a major transit system for passenger dispersal at the airport,” said an airport official.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by kolkata

Nice update Sun and thanx for sharing.. looks like this are part of Unitech gardens Phase 1 built on 12 acres... is supposed to be completed by Dec 2007. The pictures show 17th.. is it May .. ??? in that case DEC 2007 does look at bit doubtful..

http://groups.google.com/group/Unitech-Kolkata

[Suncity]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...72&postcount=4

Here's their north Kolkata project in Bonhooghly

http://www.edencal.com/

Eden Lakeside

[arijeetb]

The state government has accepted a proposal to add two northward flanks to the Park Street flyover to ensure smooth flow of traffic through Esplanade during an agitation in front of Metro cinema.

The flanks will descend on CR Avenue and Bentinck Street. The government has long been considering a proposal to build another flank, which will lead to Mayo Road.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107061...ry_7885574.asp

[kolkata]

Some change in plan i guess for the proposed Dankuni township project.
http://www.ndtvprofit.com/homepage/s...w.asp?id=38810

Fierce competitors are turning friends for a large project in Dankuni in Hoogli district of Kolkata where Unitech and DLF will together develop a township and an SEZ to cash in on economies of scale.

In what will be 50:50 revenue sharing plan, DLF and Unitech will be investing a total of Rs 33,000 crore in a 5,000 acre development.

"We are doing some very large projects for which Unitech and DLF will work jointly near Kolkata because the scale of the projects are such, they cannot be done by a single player," Unitech said.

This project is a tie up with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority where both parties paid about Rs 56 lakhs an acre for land acquisition.

Division of work

The properties are well divided between the two firms where the township and the industrial hub will be developed by DLF. Of a total of 5,000 acres nearly 2,000 acres will be housing largely developed by Unitech.

On a day when investors are evaluating the future growth prospects of DLF versus Unitech not many are aware that when it comes to size and scale competition has to give into cooperation. Dankunji project is one such example at a time when land prices are very high and Kolkata is hot favourite of many large investors.

Land acquisition is to begin soon shortly on this project. The township is to come up in 15 years and will house eight hundred thousand people.

[kolkata]

Originally Posted by Suncity

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...72&postcount=4
Here's their north Kolkata project in Bonhooghly

Eden LakeSide looks much better than EdenCity, hopefully Eden LakeSide will look similar once completed as visible in the renders and EdenCity on the other side will look much better than the rendering published....

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by kolkata

Some change in plan i guess for the proposed Dankuni township project.
http://www.ndtvprofit.com/homepage/s...w.asp?id=38810

This is indeed very interesting!

[sidney_jec]

A massive construction of residential space is in the pipeline by some of the biggest brands of the country in the city..

Anws does any one has any news and snaps of the under construction Belghoria Exp'way and kalyani exp'way.

New townships in Kolkata to add 250 mn sq ft in five years

Namrata Acharya / Kolkata June 12, 2007



A boom in real estate sector across the country has not left Kolkata behind as a number of upcoming townships in city suburbs are attracting investors and mass housing complexes to some hitherto uptapped suburbs.

According to estimates by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India, in the next five years 250 million sq feet will be added to greater Kolkata, requiring an investment Rs 37,500 crore.

Rajarhat in the north-east, Dankuni in north-west, Howrah in the west, Diamond Harbour road beyond Joka and Batanagar in the south-west and the Garia-Narendrapur stretch in south-east are areas which will see more than 50 per cent price rise in the next one year, said real estate sector sources.

Two years back, property prices in Rajarhat were not more than Rs 1,200 sq feet.

Prevailing prices are not less than 2,800 per sq feet.

Unitech, which is developing a 150-acre township in the area, is selling at around Rs 3,000 square feet. By the next year, Unitech expects to sell at not less than Rs 4,000 sq feet, says Ranjan Arora, assistant manager (sales), Bengal Unitech Universal.

In Dankuni, a mega township by the DLF group along with a couple of infrastructure projects are pushing up property prices.

The second Vivekananda Setu (across the Hooghly River) and the Belghoria Expressway, which are under construction, will further boost the prices here as Dum Dum airport will only be 20 minutes from Dankuni once the construction is over.

According to Jitendra Khaitan of Pioneer Properties, property prices in Dankuni have escalated by 40 percent over the last year, and about 50-60 percent rise is expected the next one year.

"It is only after two-three months that the exact price rise in the Dunlop area can be anticipated, but the area will see a substantial price rise after the DLF brand," says Himon Sanyal, head, corporate services(east), TrammellCrow Meghraj Property Consultants.

In the west, Howrah is another developing area as it has emerged as a suitable destination for middle-income group housing and small businesses based in Kolkata, says Khaitan.

Along with high-end township, a number of shopping malls and other public-utility service centres, which are coming up in the area are expected to jack up the prices.

The Kolkata West project, a mega township project, is attracting a number of NRI investors in the area. In the south-west, the proposed township on the surplus factory of Bata India at Batanagar is pushing up the prices.

The selling price per square feet area in the township is expected to be around Rs 2,000, whereas the ruling prices in the area is around Rs 900 per square feet.

"It is wrong to say townships are pushing up the prices in a particular area, the he construction cost over the last year has gone up so much, that it is impossible to built houses at less than Rs 1,000 square feet," claims Sumit Dabriwal, managing director of Riverbank Holdings Pvt Ltd, which is executing the Batanagar township project.

In the south-west, Diamond Harbour road stretch also witnessed moderate price rise over the last year, mainly due to the government's proposal to develop a township in Baruipur.

Alongside, Raichak-Kukrahati bridge is expected to drastically cut travel time to Haldia.

Both the projects are scheduled to be built by Indonesian company Salim. However, the fate of the projects appear uncertain as of now because of local opposition to the presence of Salim as an infrastructure developer. In consequence, real estate analysts do not predict substantial price rise in the area over the next year.

"The are has a lot of untapped potential, but at present not much price rise is expected as infrastructure is a problem here," says Sanyal. Garia and Narendrapur in the south are other areas attracting investors and occupiers, as metro rail extension till Garia will ensure easy connectivity to the rest of the city.

The prevailing prices in Narendrapur is around Rs 1,500 square feet. A moderate 15-20 percent rise in price is expected in the coming year. Areas like Patuli, Baishnabghat, Barrackpore, Sonarpur and Barasat are some other upcoming areas drawing the attention of small investors and MIG and LIG occupiers.

Following industrial development in smaller West Bengal towns like Durgapur and Haldia, a number of housing projects are driving real estate sector development in the areas.

As Kolkata appears to be poised for rapid information technology sector led growth in the coming years, many property consultants feel the time is just right to invest in Kolkata.

"It is the right time to invest in property in Kolkata, as at least 50 -60 percent price rise is assured in the some of the developing areas in Kolkata," says Sanyal.

"Suburban locations are witnessing some pressure as increasing interest rates have magnified the outflow for genuine purchasers. While Kolkata market has traditionally been know to be less volatile compared to Mumbai and Delhi, and hence, any investor who is comfortable with the city and moderate long-term returns, can consider this is as a reasonably safe destination." says Kaustuv Roy, analyst at Cushman Wakefield.

Kolkata continues to be a tier-II location in terms of property and land valuation, and most experts think the city will take quite some time to catch up with developed markets like NCR and Mumbai.

"Kolkata is referred to as a Tier II City for commercial growth and as of now does not compare to the real estate prices witnessed by more established markets like Mumbai and NCR, despite Kolkata's recent emergence (or relatively newer emergence) as an IT/ ITES. Furthermore, there is still hesitation amongst new entrants for Kolkata as a destination; hence the demand will be a factor which will act as a deterrent to growth," says Roy Price appreciation has been in the range of 15 per cent to 20 per cent on an average through the past 12–18 months in Kolkata and may remain similar in the next year, he predicts.

Certain areas like New Town Rajarhat where several mass housing projects are nearing completion, the prices may appreciate 5 per cent more than the other areas, he adds.

Similar is the view of Ranjan Arora from Unitech, who says, "The same apartments which we are selling at Rs 3,000 in Kolkata would have fetched around Rs 5,000-6,000 sq feet in Mumbai."