$2 bn FDI in townships planned in city, Chennai

$300m venture capital fund for realty startups

MetroCorp, a company promoted by a consortium of investment bankers and mortgage bankers from US and Europe, plans to invest about $2 billion through the FDI route to take up residential townships in Bangalore and Chennai this year.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Kenneth Blades, director, MetroCorp said the investment will be for two large integrated townships. They will be taken up on 1,000 acres in Bangalore and 500 acres in Chennai.

Without disclosing the leading Indian business house, MetroCorp is collaborating with, for the two projects, Blades said the townships will be a mix of commercial, residential, retail and entertainment spaces, plus educational and helthcare institutions.

Also, MetroCorp is raising $300 million to create a separate venture capital fund to help entrepreneurs and start-ups to set up integrated townships in other Indian cities.

For its India foray, MetroCorp has teamed up with Jurong, a statutory body of the ministry of trade and indsury, Singapore, to take up the Rs 600 crore Nirvana township on the outskrits of Bangalore near the proposed international airport at Devanahalli.

The company chose Bangalore because of its multicultural population and saw huge prospects of office space absorption "" 7.5 million sq feet. The closest competition Gurgaon saw 2.1 million sq feet absorption, said Deepak K, director, MetroCorp.

According to Munukutla Rao, CEO Jurong India, MetroCorp is the promoter of the project and Jurong is the master planner, architects, contractors, engineers and facility managers.

The 136-acre Nirvana township at Devanahalli will have 815 tropical designed bungalows, connected internally with 40 feet and 60 feet wide roads. The plots will be in five sizes with civic amnenity, parks and playground built on 100 acres.

The company is puting up spa resort and country club in the township on 36 acres in association with the Banyan Tree group. And another 100 acres has been reserved for future township expansion or for a golf resort.