Ahmedabad gets Rs 1,900cr to improve infrastructure

Ahmedabad:

Looking at the size of the funds allocation this financial year, there’s lot more in store for the city. The state government has earmarked Rs 1,900 crore in 2010-11 for improving services in Ahmedabad. The money is to be used for projects spanning all sectors under a plan that aims to change the way the city looks and its citizens live.

The focus this year will be on slum upgradation and urban development. State Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala said, “Approximately Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated this year. 2010-11 will focus on slum upgradation. We want to achieve the target of providing housing facility to one lakh slum dwellers.”

Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel said the BRTS, the biggest project of 2009 has been a great success and thus, more funds will go into extending the services “according to the share in government funds”.

POLICE (HOME DEPARTMENT): Rs 183 CRORE
A new scheme, ‘Gaurav Senani’ (police aide) will be launched to generate posts in the department. A Home Guard Bhavan will come up in the city for Rs 42 lakh. The Sabarmati Central Jail will get 400 new cells at a cost of Rs 9 crore.
 

ROADS AND BUILDINGS: Rs 66 CRORE
Rs 5.48 crore has been allocated for Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro link. Three new bridges will be built on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway. Rs 7 crore will be spent on a mini-theatre, lab and a hostel for women at L D Engineering College campus.

JUDICIARY: Rs 40 CRORE
Of this Rs 12.25 crore will go into constructing new sessions and city civil court. The 30 bungalows for judges in Bodakdev will be renovated. Judges will get new cars (allocation: Rs 3.36 crore) and 42 Blackberry phones (Rs 15 lakh) from this. Source: MagicBricks

Record Land Deals in Ahmedabad-Rs900 crore, 15 days

Some big realty companies, including Savvy Infrastructure, Goyal Construction, Gala Group and SN Group, have led this spectacular realty surge. The land deals clinched in the past fortnight include the Rs150 crore worth deal in which the Delhi-based realty giant, Parsvnath Developers Ltd, sold off 27,000 sq meters in Satellite. Shrenik Shah of Space Management Ltd confirmed the phenomenon. “Land deals worth Rs9,00 crore signed in Ahmedabad within a fortnight is a 10-year high for the city,” he said. “The realty market has been showing positive sentiments, and the boom is the result of that. Not only developers, even investors are bullish about investing in land.” Shah added that money from abroad may have been pumped into some of the deals.

Market sources said that Goyal Constructions and Dhiren Vora — both of whom are partners in Gokul Dham, a scheme on Sanand Road — are reported to have sold 1.5 lakh sq yard of land to Gala Group. Similarly, the Savvy Group, which is better known by its Shapath brand of commercial schemes, is believed to have bought, for a new project, about 5,300 square yards of land opposite the Gujarat high court. Realtors say the rate of land in the area could be anywhere between Rs55,000 and Rs60,000 per square yard. Around 3-4 land parcels have been sold in Prahladnagar area and on the 100-feet road in Satellite. Market sources said that a majority of the land deals had taken place for residential projects, while a few were for commercial and hospitality constructions.

Shubhankar Mitra, assistant vice-president with the global real estate consultants, Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj (JLLM), said land owners had been offering land at realistic rates. “The rates are relatively lower than what was being demanded till last year,” Mitra said. “Also, the land involved in all the deals is located in strategic areas of the city.” Mitra said one reason for the spurt in the realty sector is the rapid pace of industrialisation. Another reason is the NRI summit next month that has been proposed by the state government. Commenting on the sudden realty boom, director of Real Estate Studies and Management Academy (Resma), NK Patel, said, “There is great demand for property in the residential segment,” he said. “That may be one reason for the unexpected surge in land deals.”

Gujarat: Bill to help poor farmers sell land to investors

13 Mar 2010 11:03 PM PST; Ahmedabad

In an important decision of far-reaching consequences for investors wanting to set up shop in Ahmedabad and north Gujarat, the state government has decided to come up with a law that will go a long way in facilitating poor farmers to sell the land they have been tilling for decades.

The new law - proposed in the current state assembly session - will make these farmers legal owners of the land. The law is learnt to have already got government of India approval.

The state revenue department has given its stamp of approval to a bill to be brought in the last week of March 2010 that will make more than 12,000 farmers automatic owners of the land they had received during the land reform days of 1950 and 1960s. “By becoming land owners, the farmers, who own small land pieces scattered in north Gujarat and Ahmedabad, will be able to sell them without hassle,” a top bureaucrat said.

“These farmers failed to become the owners of the land they tilled as they could not pay nominal occupancy fees to the original owner till the cut-off date December 31, 1986,” said the bureaucrat, adding, “The bill has decided to remove the cut-off date clause altogether. Now, on payment of occupancy fees to the pre-land reform owners - between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 - the farmers will become their owners.”

According to one estimate, the total area involved is around 50,000 hectares (ha) in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha and Sabarkantha districts. As these are fragmented small land pieces, they were a major hurdle for those wanting to buy big chunks of land for project investment purpose. Once the bill is passed, only non-agricultural (NA) conversion fees will have to be paid to the government in case the pieces are sought to be bought for industrial use.

As the bill is proposed to come up six months ahead of district, taluka and village panchayat elections, it will also help create an atmosphere in favour of the state BJP rulers in rural areas.

“Once the tillers become legal owners, the land pieces can be transferred to the inheritors, which is not the case as of today,” said a senior official, adding, “Legal manipulations in both selling these lands were rampant all over.” Source: MagocBrick

Ahmedabad builder awarded

March 10, 2010 – 3:10 pm; Ahmedabad:

The Indian Council of Social Welfare, Gujarat, awarded Glory of Gujarat Award to chairman and managing director (CMD) of Dharmdev Group Umang Thakkar for his noteworthy contribution in the field of real estate, infrastructure, social, religious and people welfare oriented services.

Gujarat governor Dr Kamla gave away the award. Source: Magic Brick