Sahara announces ten mega township projects; forays into affordable housing

In a bid to cater to the growing demand for housing in the emerging urban and semi-urban cities of the country, Subrata Roy-led Sahara Group launched ten township projects, of which nine Sahara City Homes integrated townships will come up in Pune, Aurangabad, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Bareilly, Solapur, Porbandar, Katni, Kashipur, and while the 'Sahara Grace' brand of premium residential apartment cluster will come up in Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. The 10 projects will offer 25,000 residential units from 1 BHK to 5 BHK villas, loaded with with world-class amenities and facilities. The project management of these 10 projects will be done by Sahara Turner Constructions Ltd. According to company sources, as one township requires an investment of approximately Rs 300-500 crore, these projects will be launched in phases. The multi-billion business conglomerate announced to introduce another 58 projects spread across the country within the financial year 2012 –13. Unveiling the plans at a function at its headquarters in Lucknow, Subrata Roy Sahara, managing worker and chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, said, “Out of the 58 projects to be launched in this fiscal, 21 will be township projects and 37 projects will belong to affordable housing segments. With this, Sahara will enter the affordable housing segment under a new brand name titled 'Sahara Swapna City'. Our whole idea is to address the supply gap in the mass housing segment in the price range of Rs 5.5-11 lakh, across Indian cities.” Construction has started for the townships at Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Gwalior, Indore and Nagpur. The company plans to have townships in states like Andhra Pradesh (10), Assam (04), Bihar (19), Chandigarh (01), Chhatisgarh (04), Goa (01), Gujarat (11), Haryana (14), Himachal Pradesh (01), Jammu and Kashmir (01), Jharkhand (06), Karnataka (12), Kerala (01), Madhya Pradesh (16), Maharashtra (17), Odisha (04), Puducherry (01), Punjab (09), Rajasthan (13), Tamil Nadu (10), Uttarakhand (6), Uttar Pradesh (50) and West Bengal (06). The company is in the process of acquiring land banks in several cities, while it already has land spanning over 30,000 acres pan-India. Approximately 1,000 residential units at 'Sahara City Homes' townships in Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore and Nagpur have already been handed over to customers. The company intends to deliver over 2,000 residential units in the current fiscal. Meanwhile, Sahara Grace project has been a major success in Gurgaon and Lucknow, where it has been completely sold out. The project is under process in Kochi and has now been introduced to twin city of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. When asked about fund raising plans, Roy said, “Fund is not a problem for the group as many banks and financial institutions are very positive towards us and our plans.” On Delhi-NCR plan, the company said it has acquired land near Dwarka, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. It plans to launch housing projects in these locations in the near future. “We have great plans in Delhi-NCR region, but the land acquisition is delaying our plans there. The projects which we have launched have been a huge hit amongst customers. We are planning few launches in the region in this fiscal itself,” Roy added. On its recent foray into Bangladesh, Roy said, “We are really excited about the warm welcome we received from its government and people. We are committed to provide best projects catering to all the sections of the society there. The land cost is too expensive outside Dhaka. However, we have acquired some land and we are in negotiations with few parties which I expect will materialise very shortly. We are also entering health and education business in a big way there.” According to company sources, Sahara's mega retail venture, 'Q Shop', is on the drawing board. The retail format similar to Reliance Mart will be rolled out across India in the near-to-medium run.

source: http://www.realtyplusmag.com/rpnewsletter/fullstory.asp?news_id=20700&cat_id=1