Integrated townships new realty in UP

Sahara Infrastructure and Housing is involved in a project called Sahara City Homes, under which it aims to develop townships in 217 cities across the country; while in Uttar Pradesh the count is 50, including Lucknow.

Sahara City Homes is spread across 200 acres and will have 5,255 residential units. The estimated worth of the Lucknow township is Rs 2,000 crore.

The township established by Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (API) will cover 1,765 acres, of which about 1,200 acres has already been acquired by the firm directly from the farmers. Parsvnath Developers has lined up 22 residential projects in Uttar Pradesh, of which six projects have been completed.

The average price of various residential units in townships varies from Rs 20 lakh to over a few crores of rupees. "The Golf Villa in our township is priced at about Rs 3 crore," said Kunal Banerji, president (marketing and corporate communications), API.

Even the prospective customers are interested in these integrated townships and is ready to invest and settle in these "city-within-city" as their permanent home.

An IT professional at present working in Bangalore says: "My parents are not willing to settle in a new place for we have our roots in Lucknow. Also, given the fact that I have little hope of coming back to the city, therefore, the options of getting them a comfortable residence in one of these townships is a better idea. It also resolves my apprehension about their security, especially seeing the increasing crime rate in the city."

Besides being an opportunity to have a state-of-the art living facility, buying a residential unit in these townships is also seen by many as an investment activity.

"Real estate at present is a booming industry and any investment in it will yield good returns in near future," said an industry source.

These townships are also aiming to catch the attention of non-resident Indians (NRI). And for this the township-developers are having their sale centres at various foreign locations including USA, Dubai and UK.