Soham plans integrated township in Nagpur

Company in talks with London firm for investment.

Thane-based Soham Developers plan to bring in the first foreign direct investment (FDI) in the realty sector of Nagpur through a London-based company, which intends taking an exposure of Rs 1,500 crore in an integrated township.

Soham Builders, who have several projects to their credit in Thane, is planning to develop a full-fledged township spread across 400 acres off Wardha Road. The London-based group wishes to remain anonymous for the moment.

Noted chartered accountant Sanjay Kothari, who has been brokering the deal, said the Soham Group had already seen four to five locations and will soon finalise one of them.

"The proposals have been sent to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for approval and is under active consideration," said Kothari.

He said the project, when it comes through, would easily be the biggest of its kind among those being planned here and would have all facilities of a modern integrated township.

The township will have residential complexes, shopping malls, multi-screen theatres, high school, college, hospital and clubs.

Apart from these, it will also house a budget hotel, police station, fire station, sewage treatment plant, effluent treatment plant, and a captive power plant.

"The project will be developed phase-wise and depending on the demand and acceptability, the facilities and features will be enhanced in subsequent phases," he said.

The residential complex of the project will cater to all economic classes and have row houses, premium houses and high-rise buildings. "The smallest accommodation facility in the township will have a floor space of 400 sft while the biggest will be spread over 15,000 sft," said Kothari.

The entire project would be up and running within five years.

Almost 50 per cent of the total proposed area of the project will be set aside for landscaping and other amenities.

The 25-year-old Soham Group currently has a total built-up space of 40 lakh sft mainly around Mumbai. The Nagpur township would be their biggest project so far. The group also has similar plans, though on a smaller scale, for Bangalore, Pune and some other cities of Maharashtra.