Big real estate projects create a buzz in Pune

Think big and build big is the new mantra for city builders, who are in a frenzy to put together real estate projects of 100 acre or more to develop townships.

After the roaring success of Magarpatta city, a 400-acre project at Hadapsar, Pune will soon be home to many more similar projects.

"There are at least 50 builders who are planning to develop 100-acre townships. Even if a few succeed there will be atleast 1,000 acre under these schemes," says Lalit Kumar Jain, chairman, Kumar Properties and president of Promoters and Builders Association of Pune.

In the pipeline is a 100-acre project at Warje, by the Sanjay Kakade Group, costing Rs 1,050 crore. Then there is the Rs 4,000-crore project of City Developers, spread across 500 acre at Hadapsar. A third project of 180 acre is coming up near Hinjewadi at Maan Village by Pranajape Schemes. Also, Satish Magar, director of the Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company has announced two more projects of 200 acre each.

Terming his project as a "500-acre ambience, that will compete with the municipal corporation," Anirudh Deshpande, director, City Developers says, "We will competing with the municipal corporation, as we will be providing water, electricity, garbage disposal, sewage treatment, schools, colleges, golf course, sports city, two multiplexes of five screens each, convention centre, three hotels and more, within our township."

The work on the project is slated to begin next month, Deshpande says, "We have got the environmental clearance for the largest project in the country. This is an eight-year project, which we will begin next month and the first phase will be ready by June 2007."

Backing the need for the development of these mega projects, Jain points out at the growing migration in the city, "Over the next five years, there will be a migration of one lakh people per annum. Also, by 2010, Pune will have created job opportunities for six lakh professionals."

He goes on to add that there is already an acute shortage of tenements. The current demand is for 1,25,000 tenements per annum, whereas the supply is for 70,000. And the figures above are only of the upper middle class and the middle class. If the economically weaker section is also taken into account the shortfall comes to 10,00,000 houses per annum.

Explaining the trend of building townships, Shravan Agarwal, managing director, Purple Properties says, "Techies are already used to world-class infrastructure and amenities. As such large projects cater to the tastes of the techies and they get easy housing loans from banks, it is a lucrative market to cater to."

The group is coming up with a 65-acre residential project, Park Street at Wakad. Says Agarwal, "The first phase of this project will be ready by June 2007 and we are already sold out."