Business Standard, Mumbai [08/08/06]
Sahara lines up Rs 800 crores for each City Homes

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Aug 07: Sahara Infrastructure & Housing will be investing around Rs 800 crore in each of its City Homes across 217 cities, for which it has already acquired 20,000 acres.

The project will be undertaken in two phases, with the first phase covering 102 cities.

Sunder Lal, senior advisor to Sahara Infrastructure and sales head of Sahara City Homes, said the investment per project in all the cities would be Rs 600-800 crores, exclusive of land cost. This was just the investment in the residential part of the City Home project, he added.

So far 20,000-acre land had been acquired for the various City Home projects and registered in the company’s name, Lal said. He said the first phase, the land requirement of which was likely to be in the region of 13,000 acres, would be completed in five-six years.

Sahara had received clearances for six cities-Ahmedabad, Gwalior, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Indore. Lal said 59 applications were awaiting clearances, of which seven-eight were expected to be cleared by August.

HOMING IN

· The company has acquired 20,000 acres land across 217 cities in the country.

· Sahara Infra has secured nod for development in Ahmedabad, Gwalior, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Indore. It is awaiting approval on 59 applications

The size of each project would vary between 100 and 360 acres.

Commercial development in the projects – which will include hotels, retail outlets, entertainment floors, hospitals and schools – will account for 4-5 per cent of the total area, or as the state government regulations demand. The City Home sales head said the size of each project would vary between 100 and 360 acres.

On whether the group would look at tie-ups for the commercial development, Lal said many companies had approached for the purpose, but nothing had been finalized yet.