HCC to invest Rs41,500 crore in Gujarat luxury township

This is called new urbanism?..luxury township..exclusive by uprooting people...

domain-b.com : HCC to invest Rs41,500 crore in Gujarat luxury township

Ajit Gulbchand's Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) has signed two agreements with the Gujarat government to develop a waterfront city at Dholera and a water pipeline projects at a total investment of Rs 41,500 crore.

The waterfront city project will be spread over 4000 acres at the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) on the lines of Lavasa, India's first and largest man made Hill City being built by HCC near Pune, at a cost of Rs.40,000 crore.

Dholera, on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), is located at the Gulf of Cambay about 129km from Ahmedabad.

The water pipeline projects are with Narmada water resources, water supply and Kalpasar department to develop three water pipeline worth Rs1,500 crore.

The three water pipelines project envisages inter basin transfer of water from N M C to various reservoirs such as the reservoirs based inter basin transfer of water, to Dharoi reservoir in Mehsana district, Sipu and Dantiwada reservoir in Banaskantha district.

''The concept of new urbanism is gaining momentum globally and we are happy to initiate this modern and sustainable WaterFront City in Gujarat, based on this model," said Ajit Gulabchand, chairman and managing director, HCC. "We are confident of replicating our successful Lavasa business model which has already established a large network of business partners. The innovative nature of this project is matched only by the Gujarat government's keen interest to develop world-class infrastructure in the state."

HCC says it will will fund the first phase of the project through private equity and debt, a part from it's own investment while the balance through the self cash generating route.

The actual construction work will start after various regulatory approvals like detailed project report, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study and after development of the master plan of the region.

The initial phase is expected to be ready in the next three years and the entire project is due to be completed in 8-10 years time. The new Water Front City at Dholera is expected to employment around 50,000 workers.

HCC's 15,000-acre Lavasa township has a 20sq-km man-made lake, and is India's first man-made hill station.

The township itself has been master-planned by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum to develop into a world-class, integrated urban and economic centre providing an aspirational lifestyle and facilities where the people can live, work, learn and play, in harmony with the highest environmental ideals.

The company has already established tie-ups with international as well as domestic institutions such as ITC Hotels (Fortune Select) and Accor (Pullman, Novotel and Grand Mercure) in the field of hospitality, Oxford University (Said Business School), Girls' Day School Trust (UK), Ecole hotelier de Lausanne (Switzerland), Symbiosis (Pune) and Christ University (Bangalore) in the field of education and Apollo Hospitals in health and wellness.

Through its subsidiary HCC Real Estate, the company owns 60 per cent of the Lavasa township venture, which has already won some of the world's most prestigious planning awards from The Congress of New Urbanism, in the US and The American Society of Landscape Architects - the only development in India to have qualified for this recogntion.