Rs 550cr Hudco loan for Chhattisgarh

The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) Limited has granted a loan of Rs 550 crore to Chhattisgarh for the new capital that would come up in 8000 hectares about 20 kilometres from the existing capital city.

"The loan, granted against mortgage of land, would enable to start the process of developing the new capital""to be known as Naya Raipur," additional chief secretary and chairman of Naya Raipur development authority P Joy Oommen told Business Standard.

The loan received from HUDCO would be used for acquiring land and constructing roads, he added.

Of the total 8000 hectares of land proposed for the new capital city, which would be a hi-tech city, 2500 hectare of land is owned by the government.

"After acquiring land, it would be kept mortgage to get more loans under the rotation process," Oommen said, adding that the process of land acquisition had started for the project.

A sum of Rs 300 crore from the HUDCO loan would be used for constructing infrastructure like roads.

According to Oommen, the American company Sheladia assigned the work of designing the roads in the new capital had submitted its report and the government would soon invite tenders.

About 60km of roads of international standards would be constructed.

Both two-lane and four-lane roads had been proposed.

Work on the capital complex to house all important offices would start off with the road construction work.

Naya Raipur will get a convention centre, five-star hotels, SEZs for information technology units and gems and jewellery, residential township with golf course, amusement park, super speciality hospitals, commercial office space, museum, art galleries, entertainment parks, botanical garden, a law university and education hub, a 60,000-seat cricket stadium, a cultural centre, malls, sports complex, a logistics hub with warehousing, a transport hub and other housing.