If you thought that a kibbutz and a moshav were communities exclusive to Israel, well think again. For 46-year-old, Arun Anand of Wise Infrastructure Limited, a Delhi-based real estate development company is replicating a moshav right here in India.
Anand an engineer by profession, set up Wise Infrastructure Limited in 1994 with an initial investment of Rs 5.25 crore, funded by a venture capitalist. The company was formed with the intention of setting up infrastructure projects for industrial parks. However, in 1995 on his trip to Israel, Anand visited various kibbutzim and moshavim and was impressed by their style of working. It was then that he set up Wise Industrial Park Limited in a joint venture with UPSIDC (Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation) to develop a 400-acre agro-industrial park on the Masuri-Gulawati road, near Ghaziabad. He also entered into a similar joint venture with KINFRA (Kerala Industrial Infrastructure) and set up Wise Infra Limited to develop 750 acres of land in Kerala.
I was working with DLF till 1994 but then decided to set up something on my own. So with the help of a venture capitalist I set up Wise Infrastructure Limited in 1994 as an infrastructure provider for industrial parks. The main aim was to set up an industrial park with a captive power plant. However, that never materialised. Then in 1995 I went to Israel and was very impressed by the concept of a moshav. A moshav is a community where the land is owned by the people individually but there is common infrastructure which all the land owners use. This is very cost effective especially in the case of agro-industrial parks.
Once back in India, I decided to set up something on the lines of a moshav. The UP government was looking for a private party for developing an industrial park. They were in the process of acquiring land. We made a presentation to them and then set up Wise Industrial Park Limited as a joint venture between UPSIDC and Wise Infrastructure Ltd with the latter holding 89 per cent equity. Wise Park is some 400 acres of land on the Masuri-Gulawati road, near Ghaziabad. Development work started on the land in 1997-98. We are developing it as an agro-industrial park.
We are looking at selling land to first generation entrepreneurs who may be interested in setting up small food-processing units. We provide them with a clear land title and consolidated land, so they do not have to assemble bits and pieces of land. In addition to that, we offer them value-added services such as environment clearances, power sanctions, architectural and construction management.
The difference between Wise Park and other industrial parks is that we have built infrastructure which is spread over 12 acres of land and which includes a cold storage, warehouse, packing and grading centre, R&D test laboratory and a logistic support centre. This infrastructure is for the common use of all the entrepreneurs, but for a fee. We are also looking at selling the food products under a common brand of `Wise Park Foods'. We intend to have around 100 exclusive `Wise Park Foods' outlets in Delhi by the end of the year. We have advertised for people who have space such as a garage or one room in the house that they can spare and open a `Wise Park Foods' outlet.
So those who set up a unit in Wise Park need to only concentrate on processing food. Everything else is taken care of by us. So it is a win-win situation for all of us. By providing them with the facilities we have a continuous income stream, otherwise land is an exhaustible asset. And by using the common infrastructure, they save on heavy investment.
We intend to sell half the land to big corporate houses and the other half to small entrepreneurs. This is because by selling land to big corporate houses we get a large amount of money in one go and we can utilise this money for developing the common infrastructure.
We have already sold about 40 acres to Coca-Cola for a bottling plant. They took land from us as we helped them get all the clearances and they could start production almost immediately.
We are working on a similar project in Kerala. We have entered into a 50:50 joint venture with KINFRA. However, this project is much larger, around 750 acres. Of this, we intend to develop 200 acres as an agro-industrial park, around 200 acres as an IT related park and about 250 acres for social infrastructure. Development work started in Kerala in 1998-99.
We expect Wise Park to be fully operative by the end of the year. We have already sold land to quite a few small entrepreneurs and they have started operations.
