B Dasarath Reddy / New Delhi June 23, 2006
Hyderabad would like to have a downtown concept to meet the future requirements of business.
Hyderabad is eager to graduate to an international city. With projects like a big international airport and the 162-km outer ring road (ORR) envisaging a growth corridor covering approximately 80,000-acre area around the state capital under execution, the city’s ambitions are growing by the day.
Fuelling this growth are the booming IT sector, and scores of special economic zones proposed for industries ranging from semiconductor to gems and jewellery.
Now, Hyderabad, considered as the future aviation hub, proposes to have a Business District as well on the lines of those in the West or Dubai or Taiwan.
Imagine a 60 to 100-storied skyscraper coming up in the proposed Business District, which would put the city next only to Mumbai in the country where Shapoorjee Pallonjee is constructing similar trade towers. A big leap indeed in the development of Hyderabad as a business hub.
Says B P Acharya, vice-chairman and managing director of the state-owned Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), which has been appointed by the state government to develop the Business District.
“Hyderabad is growing into an international city and we would also like to have a downtown concept to meet the future requirements of business here. With land becoming scarce, we naturally plan to grow vertical.”
The government has earmarked 97 acres of land at Manchirevula, eight km from the Hitec City, to develop an integrated Business District.
It will have a couple of trade towers coming up in half of the area while the other half has been earmarked for hotels and other amenities. Authorities are not willing to call them twin towers in the wake of 9/11 tragedy.
“One tall tower with more than 60 levels will be accompanied by one or more smaller towers. The exact plan is still to be worked out,” a senior official of APIIC, who is handling the project told Business Standard.
The authorities have asked the ORR officials to provide an exclusive access for Business District to the eight-lane ORR that passes through the project location. A big road connecting the Hitec City and the Business District is also under planning stage.
“We want to make Business District as a ‘must have’ address for every big company like Hitec City is for software companies. We hope that 12-15 international airlines and all the big names in the corporate world, which will have a presence in the state, locate their offices there,” an APIIC official said.
As for the political leadership of the government, it wants to create bigger and better landmarks for the city which would dwarf the previous landmarks like Hitec City and Cyber Towers created during the tenure of N Chandrababu Naidu.
The project, which would be executed in public-private partnership with APIIC holding an 11 per cent equity, has received a very good response from the who’s who in the construction and real estate world.
Mantri Developers, in consortium with Mauritius Holdings and Abhishek Developers, a subsidiary of Mantri Group, Prestige and Reliance Ports & Terminals, Tishmen Speyer, in consortium with Indian Master Fund, ICICI & NCC, Vornado Realty Trust, TCG Urban Infrastructure Holdings, Elbit Medical Imaging, Gamuda Berhad, Larsen & Toubro, Emaar Properties, Reliance Energy & Shobha Developers, and India Bulls & Shapoorjee Pallonjee are in the fray for developing the project.
They are likely to be shortlisted for the bidding process. The project cost is estimated to be anywhere between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,500 crore.
Bidding is expected to be based on revenue sharing, where each of these consortia will have to quote the percentage of revenue on gross revenues willing to part with APIIC.
“Besides holding an equity, APIIC will also get a share in profits from the developer,” an official said, adding that money received by the developer from marketing the space would be kept in an escrow account till the construction of trade towers are fully complete.
The tallest trade tower is expected to have a minimum built-up area of 2 million square feet.
“We have called for some additional information from the companies giving them time by this month end. We hope to complete the shortlisting of companies by July. The entire bidding process is expected to be completed by December 2006,” Acharya told Business Standard.
Though the project is expected to be completed within 18 to 24 months, a fully developed business district would take a little longer owing to the size and operations proposed in the project
