Follow Us
Neeraj Bagga
Apart from being in Punjab’s list of Smart Cities, Amritsar has also got two other major infrastructure projects like Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) — and together all of these will have a ripple effect on the property market in and around the city.
Although these announcements have not created any upward trend in the land prices immediately as their implementation will take a few years, the industry is abuzz with hopes of a bright future. The holy city is an important pilgrim centre for Sikhs and is a strategic border city that is well connected by air, road and rail to the rest of the country and Central Asian countries, but the real estate growth and price appreciation here have not been very promising for the past several years. “This led to the need to improve the infrastructure here and add some important industrial and educational projects that will transform the traditional city into an industrial engine of growth”, says city-based industrialist Rajan Bedi, who is running a Rs2,000-crore business network with interests in various sectors, including, real estate, pharmaceutical, hospitality and agriculture feed.
According to Punjab Local Bodies Minister and local MLA Anil Joshi, Amritsar will gain immensely from being included in the list of 100 smart cities. “The holy city is not only the main pilgrim centre of Sikhs , but also an important trad and industrial centre of Punjab and has a detaled master plan, so there will be no hitch in the city getting all the smart city features over the next few years”, he said.
The Union Government has allocated $1.2 billion for fiscal 2014-15 to build 100 new smart cities, and to develop satellite towns around existing cities.
However, the biggest challenge would be the capability of the Parkash Singh Badal government in providing a minimum of 5,000 acres of land to be developed for economic and housing needs. The government had earlier frittered away the opportunity to have an SEZ project for lack of adequate land. Several industry mavens maintain that these developpments should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Indo Foreign Chamber of Commerce President B.K Bajaj cautioned that, the government may introduce a host of measures for raising funds from the public like surcharge on fuel, commercial vehicles, stamp duty, property tax, and an urban tax on purchase of new vehicles.
He added that it is to be seen what the city will gain in return. Smart Cities would be high-tech cities with uninterrupted power and water supply, online delivery of all public services, a digitally-enabled transportation, healthcare, education, utilities, energy grid and real estate in cities, digital security surveillance, modernisation of the public distribution system etc. LED streetlights to be instantly connected to and controlled by a remote lighting management system would be another attractive feature.
He cautioned that the district administration and municipal authorities have a gigantic task at hand, especially in the old city areas. “It is to be seen how modern technology and mechanisms would gel with the historic town. The walled city is already grappling with dense population, its narrow winding lanes are unable to cater to the increasing traffic, there are rampant encroachments and garbage lifting is tardy and here we are talking of automated systems in all these areas”, he added. “Smart City status for Amritsar will prove to be a boon for the citizens and lakhs of tourists who throng the city throughout the year. But there are huge challenges in this regard in terms of optimum utilisation of its resources, a must for any smart city for which we need to interlink various departments and also need to overhaul our resource management system”, said Alpha G: Corp development Pvt Limited Vice- President Navdeep Singh Narang .
Narang added that his company had set up residential Integrated Township Alpha International City in Amritsar and was in the process of setting up a state-of-the-art Industrial Project. These projects are on the line of smart city concept, he informed.
He said even during downtrend for the past some years the demand for housing in the government established planned localities within the city has not waned. Actually, the prices in these localities have gone up in these colonies during auctions.
However, similar demand has been missing for housing in the privately established colonies situated outside the by-pass. There was not enough business and economic gains to attract the buyers to shift out. The real estate players feel that these projects will change this trend.
For instance, the site approved for setting up the IIM is located at Nijjarpura village, on Amritsar –Jalandhar road. A number of planned localities set up by the private players are situated on this road and these are going to benefit from the setting up of the new IIM.
The ADKIC project envisages a major expansion of Infrastructure and Industry – including industrial clusters and rail, road, port and air connectivity along the route. This will certainly bolster trade and economic ties and would see spurt in manufacturing. P. L Seth, a local shawl manufacturer said, smart city will ensure state-of-the-art infrastructure while the ADKIC — an Industrial Zone spanning 20 cities across seven states, could become an engine of economic growth binding together diverse cultures, linguistic groups, ethnic identities living on the massive spread of Indo-Gangetic plane.
According to Narang, “These new projects will result in growth of the real estate sector as these shall generate opportunities in terms of employment and surplus money. Organised real estate sector will benefit immensely.”
The industrial and freight corridor will result in the growth of infrastructure in terms of road network and the railway network. “Extension of the corridor will not only boost infrastructure growth in the holy city, it will also create immense opportunities for growth of the industrial sector”, he maintained.
Frittered gains
However, it is not the first time that the holy city has got major infrastructure boosting projects, but somehow the real estate growth in and around the city has not been able to cash in on these in the past. In order to facilitate, swift exchange of cargo a state-of-the-art dry land port is already operational at Aattari-Wagah Joint Check post. It is being jointly looked after by border guards of India and Pakistan. A similar trade facilitation centre is expected to come up across the border in Pakistan.
Bedi, who has one pharmaceutical unit in Uzbekistan, says, “Amritsar is well connected by road to Afghanistan via Pakistan. Afghanistan is a gateway to several Central Asian countries like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan besides Iran and China. Merchandise especially dry fruits and vegetables are already traded between Afghanistan and India via the land route.
Amritsar airport, officially known as Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, has air links to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan and Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan Airways and Turkmenistan Airlines also operate flights between the holy city and their capital cities.
The city is already on the international tourist destinations map and a record number of tourists from around the world and across the country visit it daily. To cater to the demand of tourists and high-level business conferences and meetings it has over 200 hotels and guest houses, including, three five-star properties.
Earlier, coming up of International airport and Integrated Check post, also known as dry land port, had brought in various colonisers of national repute to this border town. As many as 60 colonies, including 10 mega townships spread over 100 acres each, were set up primarily on the periphery of the city and beyond it. These colonies are roughly spread over 700 acres.
These builders include well-known developers like Ansal Buildwell, AIPL Ambuja, Impact Gardens and Tiwari Coloniser, Metcalf etc.
Offering state-of-the-art civic amenities with residential plots and flats along with round-the-clock security, the real estate developers competed with one other to secure the largest piece of the realty pie. However, more than half of the area has not seen construction activity and is lying idle.
Vicky Sharma of Veer Colonisers, said, “Earlier our hopes were dashed when the plan to have an SEZ that was expected to bring in infrastructural investment worth Rs1,100 crore to the city, fizzled out due to political wranglings. Now, these new projects hold another opportunity to infuse more liquidity in the local market”.
7
9