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Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on this.

Expanding its business portfolio, the Kolkata-based Saraf Group, promoters of Forum Mart shopping malls, has now decided to set up a titanium plant at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.

The plant will be set up over 600 acres of land at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in collaboration with the Russian Government. Production is likely to start by 2009- end.

This was disclosed by Saraf Group chairman S M Shroff while talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday. He said the project had received approval of the State Government and an MoU would be signed soon. The company had already acquired 200 acres.

He also announced setting up of two more shopping malls in the State, buoyed by the success of Forum Mart here. Both the malls – to come up in the Capital city and in Berhampur, would also have four-screen multiplex. The projects are likely to be completed by 2009-end.

The following invitation for bids is for

• the construction of a Garden of peace at Dhauli which will include an amphitheater, and
• group housing scheme at Gadkana.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… Forum Projects, which now has a land bank worth over Rs 3,500 crore, is also investing big beyond Bengal. …

A mixed-use city-centre development in Adityapur across 22.5 acres with hospitals, club, cineplex, retail, residential and conferencing facilities, and a 550,000-sq ft lifestyle mall in Bhubaneswar with 1,200 car parks are the other large-format projects on the group’s 5.5 million-sq ft retail roadmap.

Following are excerpts from a Business Standard report.

Berhampur Development Authority (BDA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kolkata based real estate company, Forum Private Limited, for construction of a Rs 95.78 crore integrated commercial-cum-residential complex here.

The complex, which will come up under the banner of Gajapati Plaza on a 5 acre plot, will be built on the model of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Facilities like shopping malls, hotel and entertainment arcade will be provided in the complex, said Sarat Ranjan Patnaik, chairman of BDA.

The executive committee of BDA approved the project on Wednesday and decided to send the proposal to the government for final approval.

According to the proposal, BDA will provide the land to the real estate company on 75 years lease for construction of the complex and will manage it after completion.

… Forum was selected to construct Gajapati Plaza through competitive bidding. BDA had floated tender inviting applications from the companies for construction of the proposed project. While 14 applications were received, only four were selected for pre-qualification bid. Of them only two were in the final bid and Forum was awarded the tender.

Forum, promoted by the Sarafs of Kolkata, had earlier constructed the Forum Mart in Bhubaneswar.

Sarafs were working on a project to set up a titanium dioxide plant near Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.

“The face of the Berhampur will change when the Gajapati Plaza constructed at the Corporation Road, on the side of National Highway 217 in the heart of the city comes up”, he said.

BDA has approved a proposal for construction of Vivek Vihar Phase II, residential housing project and a bypass from Gokarneswar temple to All India Radio office in Berhampur.

According to Patnaik, the housing project would cost about Rs 7.50 crore and would come up over 29 acres at Ambapua at the outskirt of the city. About 100 houses of different categories would be constructed.

The price of the houses would range between Rs 2.81 lakh and Rs 16.34 lakh depending on type.

“We decided to construct the housing project from our own fund”, he said.

BDA has decided to construct 600m by-pass from Gokarneswar temple to AIR office at a cost of Rs 1.69 crore to solve the acute traffic problem in Gate Bazar area here.

(Thanks to Deba Nayak for the pointer to this.)

Economics Times reports on such an effort. I hope Orissa government is aware of this and is making pitches for one of the locations in Orissa. Following are excerpts from the Economic Times report.

THE government is planning to build 6-7 new IT townships, called knowledge townships, close to major urban centres and international airports. The residential townships will be based on the walk-to-work concept. This means the professionals working there will be encouraged to live close to the workplace.

The companies setting up units in the townships may be extended tax sops under either the software technology park (STP) or special economic zone (SEZ) scheme. Each township would have a minimum 10-hectare (1 hectare = 2.471 acres) built-up area to make it compliant with FDI rules relating to investment in real estate. Each township is likely to entail an investment of Rs 500-650 crore, depending on the area.

A committee comprising members from the PMO, ministry of IT & telecom, urban development, civil aviation, Dipp along with Nasscom has identified several areas for setting up the knowledge hubs.

Sources in the committee said that these proposed townships will be extension of satellite towns like Gurgaon (to be called Gurgaon Plus). Similarly the township near Mohali will be called Mohali Plus. The first of these new townships is expected to come up by 2012 and the rest by 2015.

… services like IT and BPO will be encouraged in these units.

Many domestic and foreign real estate players have expressed interest in owning land and build such townships.

“We want each township to be FDI compliant so that they can attract foreign expertise,” a senior DIPP official said. Every township would be a special purpose vehicle where states and developers would have stakes.

Urban development secretary M Ramachandran said that his ministry would advise the committee on facilities like water, electricity, drainage and other civic facilities. “We will also help in developing the structures,” he said.

“The townships may also have an IIT/IIM or such academic institutions to build an ecosystem. For tax sops, we are pushing for extension of STP scheme else the companies can also opt for SEZ status,” said Nasscom president Kiran Karnik. The townships will come complete with educational, recreational/amusement and healthcare infrastructure.

“The basic reason for proposing such townships is the existing saturation in real estate and infrastructure amongst existing IT hubs,” Mr Karnik added.

Gurgaon real estate rentals have shot up meteorically in the recent past while Bangalore doesn’t have any real estate. …

Currently, Mohali, Mysore, Noida and Gurgaon have come up as satellite townships to major state capitals, most of which have international airports.

… SEZs offer a five-year 100% tax exemption with two subsequent five-year exemptions of 70% and 50% to units.

Following is Dharitri’s report on this.

A 3 week old Business standard article talks about the mall, multiplex and real estate scenario of Bhubaneswar. Following are some excerpts from that article.

Abhijit Das, regional director at property consultants Trammell Crow Meghraj, informs that there are 4-5 malls being planned in the city, most of them in the newly developing Chandrashekharpur area. ….

Looking at the maturing consumer, Saraf is planning a 5,00,000 sq ft mall on 5.5 acres of land which in all probability will include the city’s first multiplex, a large plaza and a 100-room, three-star hotel on top. …

Another retail mall project, also on the larger side, is the 6,00,000 sq ft Junction Mall from Bengal Shrachi Housing Development (another Kolkata-based company), coming up in the Jaidev Vihar area en route to Infosys City.

The company’s MD, Rahul Todi, says this will be the city’s first organised retail destination. Set to cost around Rs 120 crore, it will launch later this year (October-November). South Africa’s Bentel will be the architects on this project, and it will boast of a two-level car parking in the basement. …

There is quite a bit of short supply in the quality residential segment in Bhubaneswar, according to Anup Mohapatra, president, Real Estate Developers Association (REDA).

He points out that over the last two years, rates in the city have increased at least four-fold. There is demand for high-end residential property in the city, most of which is coming up towards the new IT developments taking place near Chandrashekharpur. If, for instance, the demand today is for 100 homes, the supply is lagging far behind at only 10-12 at the moment, he says.

For some Kolkata-based companies, Bhubaneswar is almost like an extension of their home ground and makes an attractive investment alternative. No wonder that apart from just malls, Todi is also planning to launch a high-rise, high-end residential project with 550-600 apartments spread over 14 acres. Situated on the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar National Highway, Neo City will have a club, swimming pool, and other lifestyle amenities.

The Sureka Group, which bought a 10-acre plot in Bhubaneswar recently, is also looking at a high-end residential development. Its MD, Pradeep Surekha, informs that the company is trying to procure more land at the same place.

We are looking at a total of 20 acres for the Rs 400 crore residential project, he confirms. He is also eyeing the growing organised retail demand in the city. The Surekha Group is planning a 5,00,000-6,00,000 sq ft mall but if it gets suitable land at the right place (at least 10 acres), a mall might be developed on 1 million sq ft space. Such is the scope for retail in the city, he explains.