Noida Real Estate

No Ceiling on Height

Besides, the company plans to develop 10 such e-house projects in the metro cities across the country by 2010-11.

"We have just announced our first e-home concept called Gardenia E-Homes at Greater Noida. It will be followed by another nine such project in various metros over next three years," Design Arch Managing Director J K Jain said.

He said the company is investing Rs 150 crore for the Greater Noida project and expects a realisation of Rs 250 crore once the project is completed by mid 2010.

Jain, however, declined to disclose the investment figures for the other projects planned by the company.
"A green building may cost a little more initially, but saves through lower operative cost over the life of the building. There are many benefits, such as improving occupants' health, comforts, productivity, reducing pollution and land fill waste," he added.

He said the company is looking at developing both commercial as well as residential properties with this new concept.

Elaborating on the concept, Jain said structures would be electronic savvy, environment friendly, earthquake resistant besides other amenities.

"The green buildings in our project area will have four components, including energy saving, water saving, better indoor air quality and hygienic conditions and reduction of construction material waste," he said.

The project would have some other eco-friendly concepts, like integrated rain water harvesting coupled with recycling of water and automatic fire detection sensors, he added.

Noida Authority will be informing the applicants for the scheme through a public notice as well as individually. Since the applications for this scheme were received by various banks, a large number of applicants had not mentioned their IT pan numbers and complete addresses.

In certain cases, more than one member of the same family had applied.

The CEO said the three-member committee, appointed by the High Court, has laid down the procedure to be followed for conducting the draw.

The total number of 1,250 plots has been completed now after some adjustments. Half of the plots--625 are reserved for the applicants from ST, SC category while the other 625 are for the general category of applicants.

Noida chief executive said the draw this time would be conducted in absolutely fair and transparent manner under the supervision of the committee members and in presence of members from the public and the media.

The department heads of Noida Authority are examining the applications and will issue the needed certificates. A large number of applications were not in order, for instance 117 minors had also applied while 228 multiple applications had been received.

Other important decisions taken by the Board today pertained to D.S. Road, sports city and Abadi land.

Now Noida Administrative offices will be constructed in Sector-44 on Expressway near Maha Maya College instead of city centre in Sector-32 which will now be developed as a grand commercial market, the chief executive officer said.

Sources said these bodies may either be modelled on the lines of townships developed by state industrial development authorities like the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) in Uttar Pradesh, or follow a Jamshedpur-like model, where a corporate house takes care of civic infrastructure.

"The commerce ministry will prepare the guidelines but it is for the state government to adopt them," an official said.

Sources also pointed out that governance bodies will be established in only large SEZs, especially the ones which are multi-product zones, as a minimum area of 1,000 hectares is required to establish such a zone. Moreover, big sector-specific SEZs, which are a little smaller than the multi-product zones, will also be brought under the purview of local governance bodies.

Small zones, especially from the infotech sector, which are typically between 10 hectares and 50 hectares, will not have such bodies.

The issues being debated include law and order, birth and death registrations, as well as collection of property-related taxes and maintenance of civic infrastructure.

With the real estate market sentiment weak, has raising funds become difficult for companies like yours?
There are many large and reputed multinational companies looking to invest billions of dollars in India. For instance, US major J P Morgan Chase has announced its intention to double its proprietary investment in India. This shows that there are good investment opportunities available in India at the moment. BPTP has already diluted nearly 9% of its equity and we are quite happy that and all our investors have shown good confidence in the company and have done repeat investments. In fact, companies like ours, which have positioned themselves right, do not foresee much of an issue in raising funds.

You recently took 94 acres for Rs 4,958 cr in Noida. What plans do you have?
BPTP won the Asia's largest land deal of prime commercial land in Noida, outbidding well known developers such as DLF, Omaxe and Ansals. The deal was not only the most expensive but also has the biggest size in Asia. India is currently the buzzword internationally. This is the right time for an organised, well planned and a world class business district to emerge in India as the nerve centre of Indian and international businesses. BPTP plans to make this newly-acquired 94 acres of land in Noida an international destination for commercial space, hotels, retail and entertainment. In order to quickly implement this project, the company has already tied-up with one of the most renowned global firms of architects, Fosters + Partners, London. The traffic and pedestrian management will be planned by WS Atkins Intelligence, landscaping by dosAdos and Utility and building services by Buro Happold -- all leading international stalwarts in their respective fields of operations apart from Indian architects and consultants. This destination is being planned on the lines of some of the best business and shopping destinations of the world such as Canary Wharf of London, More London and Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. The cost of construction for the Noida project is estimated at Rs 5,000 cr. A total of 25 lakh sq ft will be built in phase I, likely to be completed in three years. Over 70% area will be developed with sprawling landscapes, open areas and greeneries. The green building concept will ensure environment-friendly structures.

You plan to tap the capital market. Are you waiting for positive triggers in the stock market?
We have no immediate plans for an IPO. However, we shall keep on reviewing the scenario as per the needs of the business.

You are among the few real estate groups that have PE funds interested. Will we see more PE deals ?
We are open to PE deals. We feel that the PE route is the right route for real estate companies at this point in time.

Many real estate groups have already forayed into hospitality, financial services, retail and telecom. Do you have any plans to diversify?

We are already in retail, hospitality and SEZs, besides residential and commercial sectors. We have planned a five-star hotel at BPTP Parklands, Faridabad. Our Noida project will focus on retail, commercial and hotel sectors. The BPTP Group companies recently got notifications from the Central government for setting up of three SEZs across NCR. We do not have any plans to venture outside the real estate sector at this point in time.

What potential do you see in the Indian retail market?
The Indian retail growth story has just started. Due to the sharp increase in per capita income of the middle class over the last four-five years, the retail sector shows a tremendous growth potential in the long run. In a country like India, there may be temporary blips here and there but in the long term, the outlook of the retail sector looks bright.

In its latest report for second quarter 2008, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj said that though Indian office markets have continued to post growth over the past few years, the last few quarters have seen a polarisation in the office markets in terms of growth in demand across the country.

It has categorised the office markets across six major cities -- Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata -- in three broad segments.

First segment includes markets which are likely to be "susceptible" in terms of retarded demand growth for the remaining half year of 2008, the report said.

The consultant has put Gurgaon and Noida (Delhi NCR suburbs), whitefield and electronic city (Bangalore suburbs), OMR (Chennai suburbs), Thane and New Mumbai ( Mumbai suburbs) and Rajarhat (Kolkata suburbs) in the "susceptible" category.

"In case of the susceptible markets, demand from occupiers in the IT/ITES segment, could be rationalised on the back of economic slowdown in the US.

"This coupled with the strong supply pipeline in many of these markets could lead to a potential consolidation in the respective markets, leading to relatively higher vacancies," Jones Lang LaSalle said, adding that this might not lead to any immediate rental consolidation.

The Consultant, however, cautioned that "if the global economic slowdown sustains, we foresee the vacancies to rise in these micro-markets due to strong supply volumes. This might put pressure on the rental values next year".

Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Ltd a leading real estate developer in India, has announced a total investment of about Rs36nm in their soon to be launched IT/ITES SEZs/Parks, Ansal API is one of the first developers in India to obtain notification for setting up of IT/ITES SEZs in the country.

The company currently has approval for setting up IT/ITES SEZs in Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Mumbai. While the IT SEZs have been branded as 'The Campus', the IT Parks have been christened ‘Net City'.

Construction, for some of the projects has already commenced and they are expected to be completed in the next five to seven years.The total area to be developed Under the scheme would be approximately 270 acres with built-up area of about 17mn sq.ft. Strategically located close to IT companies, expressways and airports, these SEZs will offer immense value to IT/ITES companies in the area besides contributing to its development. Based on the walk-to-work culture, the proposed SEZs will consist of an IT Zone (Processing area), a commercial zone (non-processing), a residential zone and a recreational area.

Speaking on the occasion, Pranav Ansal, Vice- Chairman and Managing Director, Ansal API said, “We are extremely delighted to announce our expansion into West India with the launch of IT SEZ ‘The Campus', Khopoli. These SEZs are aimed at growing IT & ITES companies who are choosing to set up centers in adjoining areas of Tier- 1 cities in view of the global economic pressure to reduce costs and maximize returns. Ansal API SEZs will offer them the best value for money."

These SEZs will be equipped with all modem amenities like 100% power back-up, professionally managed 24X7 facility services, central air conditioning etc. Special attention has been given to the architecture in order to maximize space utilization. Large and efficient floor plates, lesser columns and high ceiling height and ample car parking space are some of the other features that will be offered to customers. These SEZs / Parks will also endeavour to adhere to energy efficient building practices. Earlier in the year, Ansal API announced Haryana's first private Integrated Industrial Park Pioneer spread over 100 acres at Pathredi in Gurgaon.

The Noida Authority is in the process of appointing expert consultants for its various projects. The Noida Board has given a green signal to all such proposals and projects.

A Secunderabad-based firm Ernest and Young has been selected as consultants.

According to official sources, if all the plans and projects fall into place in next three years, Noida will be counted among the world-class cites.

The Noida Authority is understood to have planned projects, which will divide the city into different sectors where auto mart, book mart, medical city, fashion mart, and IT city will be developed. A marketing consultant has also been appointed for giving the plans a practical shape.

Now a report is being prepared for an idea of budgetary requirements for each of these projects. After this, the chief consultant will be appointed and projects will be given a practical shape.

According to the Noida Authority CEO Mohinder Singh, proposals for sports city, medical city, auto mart, fashion mart, and corporate tower have been suitably amended and modified. Thus the first stage is over.

The Noida Board, in its 147 meeting, had impressed upon the need to enhance the utility and benefits accruing from of these projects, CEO added.

According to informed circles after the relief given to people in stamp duty rates for registry of property, the government has neutralized it by announcing a hike of 25 to 50 per cent in circle rates.

From July 16, people will have to pay stamp duty as per the enhanced rates.

According to the new rates also, Kaushambi tops in higher residential rates. A sum of Rs 32,000 has been fixed per sq mt as against previous rate of Rs 25,000 per sq mt. For Vaishali and Indirapuram a rate of Rs 26,000 and Rs 28,000 has been fixed which is the second highest rate. Vasundhra is at third place with a rate of Rs 20,000 to Rs 22,000 per sq mt

Though the administration had heard suggestions and objections, it stuck to the rates finalized. Joint commissioner, Stamps, K.P. Yadav kept telling people till the last moment that the rate list has not been implemented.

When the authorities felt that the stamp duty was coming down, new rates were made operative on Tuesday.

The government SEZs, which were earlier known as export processing zones, are located in Kandla, Chennai, Falta, Cochin, Noida, Santacruz and Vishakhapatnam. These zones are currently under the supervision of development commissioners.

In the new dispensation, the zones will come under an SEZ authority, which will be responsible for their development.

Moreover, the zones will be able to use income from the land and building rentals to sustain themselves and at the same time invest in infrastructure development.

"The financial autonomy of these government zones, if accepted, will result in better management of resources and greater investments," said Yogendra Garg, director general, Services Export Promotion Council and former development commissioner of Kandla SEZ.

SEZ expert Tapan Sangal, senior manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the move is timely. "With the private zones coming in to operation, an autonomous government zone will be in a better position to face competition. Many government zones need to beef up their infrastructure and the proposed autonomy will help them in doing so."

To make the process more transparent, the corporation has sought the tenders through banks, officials said.

The corporation has also blacklisted some of the contractors, officials said.

"A list of the blacklisted contractors has also been sent to the police administration, which will resume action against them," a senior official said.

"During an investigation, we found that only 15 contractors were getting the tenders each time a project came up. They even threatened other contractors from applying for any project advertised in the papers," City Commissioner Ajay Shankar Pandey said.

Meanwhile, the City Commissioner said the municipal corporation's role in distributing tenders would be reduced. He said the tenders would be submitted in the banks on behalf of the corporation.

"The corporation has shortlisted branches of two banks in the city where anyone can fill the tender and submit," Pandey said.

While it is good news for the applicants that at long last the draw would be held this month, allottees will however have to shell out money as per the current rates. According to Noida Authority sources, the allotment of plots will not be made on 2004 rates.

Noida Authority had floated a scheme for 1250 residential plots during 2004 for four categories for which a total of 1.66 lakh applications were received.

But in the draw conducted in June 2004, only the VIPs--senior IAS, IPS officers and politicians had been favoured while the name of not a single common applicant had figured in the draw.

The draw was cancelled by the then Noida CEO, Dev Dutta Sharma within two days in view of large-scale commotion and protests. Some people had approached the High Court. The High Court while cancelling the scheme had ordered a CBI enquiry.

In November 2004, Noida Authority had decided to auction AB, & C category of plots instead of holding a draw. But 150th Noida Board Meeting had approved holding a draw instead of auction. But a committee set up to decide a date for the draw could not get time for even a meeting.

According to Noida Authority sources, the court's decision has been received for holding a draw which is expected to be held this month. But the lucky allottees will have to shell out a fat amount as per the current land rates of Noida Authority.

The forms for this scheme will be available from the divisional banks in UP besides Noida and Delhi. For quite some time, the GNIDA was preparing to launch a residential plots' scheme which was finally launched on July 3.

The chairman of Greater Noida Authority, Lalit Srivastava said residential plots will be allotted in two sectors of Greater Noida and plots will be of 120 and 200 sq mt. sizes. A draw for allotment will be held on December 22.

Application forms will be available from different banks in Delhi, Kanpur, Ghorakhpur, Varanasi, Barielly, Muradabad, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Agra, Meerut, etc. Forms can also be downloaded from the Greater Noida website. A demand draft of Rs 1,100 will have to be submitted for the application form.

This time also GNIDA has failed to make forms available to different banks. People from different places had complained that forms were not available in the banks.

There are 425 plots of 120 sq. mt in Sector-XU, and 523 in Sector-3 while 929 plots of 200 sq. mt. will be available in Sector-3. In all 90, 111 and 197 plots have been kept for reserved categories respectively in the three categories.

With the duty down from 8 per cent to 5 per cent — it’s slashed from 6 per cent to 4 per cent for women — the Authority expects more people to come forward and get their property registered, at a cheaper rate. In effect, that would mean an increase in revenue collection for the different administrations, which expect malpractices and evasion to dip drastically.

The relief comes barely a month after the Noida Authority had hiked land rates in the IT city by between 20 per cent and 25 per cent in May. The cut in duty is, meanwhile, expected to prop up the flattening property market in neighbouring Greater Noida, and Vaishali, Vasundhara and Kaushambi areas of Ghaziabad.

“The reduction in stamp duty will encourage potential house owners to own a property legally without evading registry payment. Such dodging amounts to loss worth crores every year,” said Shivakant Trivedi, additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), Gautam Budh Nagar.

The finance and revenue department had amassed Rs 775 crore in stamp duty last year, and Trivedi expects the figure to shoot up after the rate cut.

Taking a serious view of the revelation, S.K Diwedi has got the notices pasted on these flats ordering immediate vacation. He has also ordered an inquiry into the case. The GDA has also cancelled the allotment of these flats. The allotees have been asked to deposit their documents in a week’s time.

Surprisingly, the GDA does not have a record of the allotment of such flats. The interested babus have misplaced the files. The babus had informed Diwedi sometime ago that only 600 flats were vacant.

The flats which include EWS, LIG, Mini MIG, MIG, HIG, are located in Vaishali, Kaushambi, Indira Puram, Rajender Nagar, Pratap Vihar, Sanjay Nagar, Nand Gram and Balmiki Kunj.

The residential flat scheme was launched on the birthday of UP Chief Minister Mayawati.

The GDA sources feel that there are many in Ghaziabad with a monthly income of lakh or more, but even they do not have a flat of their own.

The GNIDA is preparing to launch two residential schemes.

A total of 44,000 hectare is proposed to be acquired in 124 villages. The GNIDA has so far acquired 24,000 hectares in these villages. The 5,000-hectare land to be acquired falls in villages along the GT Road, railway lines, Hindon river and in many villages in the Dankore area.

For the first stage, land in six villages has been identified along the railway line and the Hindon river where residential, industrial and IT projects are proposed to be located. It is learnt that its proposal is being given finishing touches before being sent to the government for approval.

According to the GNIDA sources, out 7,000 hectares acquired last year, 3,500 hectares have already been allotted. Houses and industries are proposed to be located on the remaining land. By the end of this year a low-income housing scheme of plots and flats will be brought.

According to Addl CEO, GNIDA, Sudhir Kumar, the survey in the remaining area will start from the next week. The land in Bilaspur village in Dankor is also included in this acquisition plan which will be completed by month end, he said.

Invoking "public purpose" to acquire agricultural land for industrial use has caused social tension and bloodshed in the past months. There is another seed of discord hidden in the antiquated Land Acquisition Act. If the developers have their way, they can bulldoze the procedure for acquisition in the name of "urgency". This word is as vague "public purpose" and the courts have written reams of judgments explaining them. Ultimately, it all depends on the facts of the case and the discretion of the court, as the Supreme Court said recently in Sheikhar Hotels vs State of Uttar Pradesh.

According to Section 5A, any person interested in the land notified for acquisition can object to the acquisition. However, under Section 17(1), in cases of "urgency", whenever the government so directs, the collector may take possession of the land for public purpose within 15 days, though no award has been made. What is worse is that once the acquisition is declared "urgent", all procedures of hearing objections and making the award are dispensed with. The colonial tinge of the 1894 Act is unmistakable here.

In the Sheikhar Hotels case, the land was required urgently for a `Transport Nagar' near Bulandshar on the national highway. The formality of receiving objections was dispensed with. Most land owners were satisfied with their compensation package, but some persons moved the Allahabad High Court. It rejected their objections as the project was indeed urgent, as the traffic congestion on the highway was getting out of hand. This view was upheld by the Supreme Court also.

While dismissing the appeal, the Supreme Court conceded that "there is no gainsaying the fact that the right to file objections under Section 5A is a valuable right and the governments are not given a free hand to dispense with it. This section is the only safeguard against the arbitrary exercise of power by the state." Having said that the judgment cautioned that "one should also not lose sight of the fact that invocation of the provision is sometimes imperative as in order to meet the urgency of the situation it needs to be invoked in public interest. Sometimes it may not be necessary at all and the state functionaries, out of over-zealousness, may invoke this provision which would seriously jeopardise the interest of the people. It depends upon case to case."

GNIDA Invites Application For Allotment of Institutional Plots For

• Education Hub
  
• Vocational HUB
  
• University
  
• Dental College
  
• Training Center
  
• Management Institute
  
• Degree College
  
• Senior Secondary School
  
• Nursery School
  
• Hospital
  
• Office Plot For Self Use
  
• Other Institution
  

• Bank Of Baroda, Sector Gamma-II, Commercial Complex, Greater Noida

• HDFC Bank, Sectoe Alpha-1 Commercial Complex Greater Noida

• HDFC Bank, Sectoe 18, Noida

• Broucher/Application Form can also downloded from the website www.greaternoida.com In that Case a seprate Demand Drft/Pay order of Rs. 1,100/- sahll be submitted alongwith the Broucher/Application Form.

• Duly filed in Application Form/Broucher must be submitted in any of the aforsaid Bank Branches alongwith the requiste proposal/Projects Details/other statutory documents registration money and processing fee.

Singh also said the plots of the countermanded draw of July 2004, which the Noida board had earlier decided to auction, would not be auctioned now. The authority is moving the Allahabad high court to seek permission to draw the names of allotees afresh and sell the plots at rates prevailing at the time of the original auction.

The authority also said people whose residential plot allotments had been cancelled for any reason, could now have these restored even if more than six months have elapsed since the annulment. This would be done for a fee, which will depend on how long ago the allotment was cancelled.

Greater Noida land rates also revised
With the Noida authority raising prices of land auctioned by it, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) board also made ``some downward revisions'' in the rates of commercial and institutional land. The board had raised the prices of such land by 60-70% in a meeting on April 8.

The authority also said the architect Charles Correa was being replaced by Grant Thorton's firm for designing and developing the city centre at Sector 25A. Singh said, ``This is being done because Correa has done nothing since he was appointed by the board two years ago. The board has now directed me to present a detailed project report of the city centre.''

In Greater Noida, meanwhile, the GNIDA board decided to allow a number of training and education institutions on a single plot, provided the plot is large enough according to the norms laid down by GNIDA.

Revealing this, GNIDA chairman Lalit Srivastava said, ``Now, in a plot where technical institutes are running, for instance, the plot owner can even open a medical college. There will be no bar on the number of training institutes -- up to a maximum of 10 -- set up on a single plot of prescribed size.''

This will take the land rates to a new high of Rs 44,550 per sq metre, from Rs 33,000 per sq mt. A proposal to this effect has been readied for the 150th Board meeting scheduled for May 1, 2008, it is learnt.

According to sources, the doubling of the land compensation rates was made the basis for affecting further increase in land rates in 149th meeting of the Noida Board. A hike of 45% was proposed. In a review, a 22-member committee took the decision to increase the rates by 35 per cent instead of 45 per cent as discussed in 149th meeting.

According to sources, the proposal has been readied with the consensus of the members which will be presented in the Board meeting scheduled for May 1, 2008, it is learnt.

The sources inform that residential sectors have been divided into five categories with maximum current rate being Rs 33,000 per sq mt, while the least current rate is at Rs 12,000 per sq. mt. Now the highest rate will be pegged at Rs 44,550 and the maximum rate being set at Rs 16,200 per sq mtr.

This has happened for the first time in last 23 years.

Set up in 1985, Noida Export Promotion Zone (NEPZ) was converted into a Noida Special Economic Zone by the government two years ago.

The government offered a number of facilities and incentives to promote exports from here. This attracted the exporters to set up their shop in the zone. Export units even help the local market to have a problem-free existence. The area was declared a "No Power Cut Zone". Besides, units enjoy freedom to export goods.

The state government has recently abolished surcharge on NSEZ.

According to officials, the NSEZ has reached a saturation point as it is left with no more space to accommodate units here.

The leading Indian and foreign companies in NSEZ include Wipro, Patni Computers, Boeing, Teen India, DHB Global, Cadence, Syscom, etc.

Till a few years ago, there were only 110 units in NSEZ, but last two years have witnessed a spurt in the number of units coming up here-making a total of 200 units. Most of the units here deal in jewellery with second spot being occupied by IT and engineering units followed by garment units.

The NSEZ offers employment to over 42,000 workers. Out of which 22,000 are directly linked with it for their livelihood. Over 2,000 women are also employed here. The number of people indirectly employed here is over 20,000, the officials said.

FOR MANY people the dream of owning property in Greater Noida might end up being just a dream. Land rates in Greater Noida, declared one of the cleanest and greenest urban areas in the country, have been hiked by 50 to 60 per cent.

Greater Noida and Taj Expressway Authority Chairman Lalit Srivastava said, "Greater Noida land rates have been hiked by 50 to 60 per cent in view of hike in land compensation. Residential land rates have been hiked from Rs 6,500 to Rs 10,500 per square metre."

Besides, Srivastava announced major rehauling of Noida and Greater Noida for Commonwealth Games 2010.

"We have decided to spend Rs 9,000 crore for development of Noida and Greater Noida this financial year."

Noida Authority Additional Chief Executive Officer Y.K. Bahl said, "The board approved Rs 4,009 crore for year 2008-09. Keeping in view the Commonwealth Games, several development projects have been planned for the city and Rs 3,918 crore would be spent for that."

"Land acquisition budget has been hiked from Rs 500 crore last year to Rs 1,000 crore. This was necessitated due to hike in land compensation rates which are now Rs 1,000 per square metre in Noida," said Bahl.

developing "For villages at par with sectors, rural development fund has also been hiked from Rs 16 crore to Rs 55 crore. For electricity infrastructure such as sub stations of 220 KV and other capacity, Rs 40 crore has been earmarked in the budget," the additional chief executive of ficer added.

"The land rate hike proposal for Noida was, however, not ap proved by the Board. It has asked for the revision of the costing.

Rates were proposed to be hiked in view of hike in land compensation," said Bahl Taj Expressway Authority (TEA) Deputy Chief executive Officer P.K. Aggarwal said, "We have approved Rs 300 crore for land acquisition and Rs 200 crore for development."

"As the authority has no funds, Rs 500 crore would be provided by Greater Noida Authority and Rs 1,000 crore by Noida Authority which would be used for land ac quisition and development pur poses. Later the money would be refunded to the authoprities once the land is sold," said Aggarwal.

The allottees will have to shell out double the amount for stamp duty. The administration has been following this system for the past three years.

It takes three to four months for the administration to issue a new administrative order.Till then the documents of allottees remain in the Sector 16 registry office.

According to registry officials those who do not avail of the concession in next 24 days will have to wait for a couple of months.

Said Noida additional CEO YK Bahl, ``The Sector 18 shopping complex and the Great India Place complex, have already becoming rather crowded because of the pressure from both Noida and Delhi customers. With the new complex, this pressure should be reduced to a great extent. Shoppers living along or commuting via the expressway are likely opt for this one. The need for more and better commercial complexes and commercial infrastructure is always growing.''

Technical and financial bids for the Sector 94 complex have already been submitted to NOIDA. The technical bids were opened on Monday at noon. There were only four bidders--Omaxe, DLF, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure and a consortium headed by BPTP. A NOIDA official said, ``The selection of the builder will be done through a two-phased system. The technical bids have been opened. Financial bids will open only to those whose technical bids meet our requirements. We have appointed Uttar Pradesh Industrial Consultants (UPICO) as consultants in the selection of the developers and other matters. To make the final decisions about giving out the contract, a team headed by Noida OSD Yashpal Singh, has also been appointed.''

Greater Noida Authority Chairman Lalit Srivastava and Noida Chief Executive officer, Mohinder Singh said that the two boards had approved the revised rates recommended by the review committee.

The Ghaziabad Development Authority has come up with a plan for the Metro to reach out to far-flung areas of the district.

But the plan for the Metro is yet to be approved by the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh governments.

GDA officials said if everything goes as per plan, the city will have state-of-the art transport system by 2012. The Metro plan includes five routes stretching to about 40 kilometre that will cost close Rs 4,400 crore.

"The Metro routes are yet to be approved but we are hoping that they will be approved after we make presentations to the state government. Our plans for the multi-level parkings and requests for railway routes will go ahead irrespective of whether the Metro routes are approved or not," GDA ViceChairman S K Dwivedi said.

GDA plans to construct seven new multilevel parkings at the cost of Rs 1,450 crore which will be able to accommodate close to 2,900 vehicles everyday.

The proposed routes for the Integrated Rail-cum-Bus Transit rail links from the Capital to other areas in the NCR will also connect the city better with close to 63 kilometre of new railway routes.

The GDA also has plans to construct 38 kilometre of elevated roads along crowded routes at a cost of Rs 1,530 crore.

With its fresh plan, the authority has proposed to connect the hi-tech areas on the eastern end of Ghaziabad and cater to integrated city and SEZ projects on northern end of the city

With its new proposal, GDA has tried to cover all the areas where private developers are coming up with housing projects. Metro's proposal will help developers attract more buyers and investors.

Out of over 3000 acre land, which the GDA has earmarked for the SEZ, IT Park and the education hub along NH58 (Meerut Road) and NH24 (Hapur Road), over 2000 acre is still fertile agricultural land while the rest of the 1000 acres has been kept aside for institutional purposes. The authority, however, now plans to bring the entire stretch under the new category.

The proposed SEZ and IT Hub will take over the part of villages Sihani, Morta, Siddiqui Nagar, Bamheta, Bayana, Kazipura, Masoori and Dasna that fall between the two national highways.

"In the institutional land, the construction is allowed on only 10 per cent land while the floor area ration (FAR) can also go up to only 1.5 times of the coverage area. If it is brought under the new category for SEZ and IT Park, construction will be allowed on 35 per cent of the total area and the FAR can also go up to three times of land," said S.K.Zaman, chief architect and town planner of the GDA.

Once the GDA board approves the proposal, the authority will move the state government for necessary approvals. "In fact, the state government has already given an in principle nod. Once the board approves the proposed changes, the GDA will start the acquisition process and invite expression of interest for the projects," said a senior GDA official.

The Haryana government has adopted the detailed project report (DPR) submitted by a private consultancy firm that proposed 14 new townships in its NCR towns namely Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Mewat and Sonepat. The firm Scot Wilson has proposed to develop new cities on the lines of world's most modern cities including Shanghai, Bangkok, New York, Suncity and Singapore.

These cities, which include about half-a-dozen theme cities also, are in addition to the proposed Industrial Model Townships (IMTs) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

All the proposed townships fall in the Global Corridor that the Haryana Government is developing in 62,000 hectares of land all along the 135 km long KMP Expressway to absorb projected population boom. The expressway is meandering through Gurgaon (Manesar), Faridabad (Palwal), Sonepat (Pawal) and Mewat.

Zooming in to future.

1. Rajiv Gandhi Education City
2. Knowledge City
3. Kharkhoda City
4. World Trade Financial City
5. Medi City
6. Biotech City
7. Cyber City
8. Sampia City
9. Badli City
10. Entertainment City
11. Leisure City
12. Sohna City
13. Fashion City
14. European Tech Park

Haryana plans

• Global Corridor would be developed on 620 hectares land for world clas development along KMP Expressway
  
• Haryana has approved Orbital Rail Corridor (ORC) all along the expressway
  
• The influence area falling within 15 km distance on both sides of the expressway would be around 5,029 sq km
  
• More than 1,10,000 acres land would be developed by private and state run agencies as residential sectors and industrial zones
  
• KMP Expressway would have highway corridor of 500 metre on its either side
  
• Population would be 160 lakh in Haryana sub region in NCR in 2021 and 215 lakh in 2031.

BIOTECH CITY on the lines of Bioplus of Singapore and Virginia Bio-Science Resource City, USA FASHION CITY on the lines of New York Fashion City and Bangkok Fashion City

MEDICITY on the lines of John Hopkins Maryland, USA, and Dr Trohan's dream project in Gurgaon

KNOWLEDGE CITY after New York Knowledge Corridor

ENTERTAINMENT CITY after Strip Las Vegas, USA, and Suncity of South Africa

WORLD TRADE CITY on the lines of NY Trado & Financial District and Singapore Financial Centre.

Those whose premises were raided included that of former CEO of Noida authority Deo Dutt Sharma, managing director of Uttar Pradesh Development System Corporation (UPDESCO) Dev Sharan Pathik, OSD (residential plots) Noida R S Yadav, financial controller of the Lala Lajpat Raj Medical College, Meerut, Lorek Yadav, and additional commissioner, Meerut division, Tanwar Jaffar Ali. The CBI also raided the office of the Noida authority.

The raids were conducted in Lucknow, Noida, Meerut and Ghaziabad.

Outside the Noida authority office, a crowd gathered as news of the CBI raid travelled fast. Said S Nahta, former chief of Noida Entepreneurs' Asociation, ``It seems we will get justice at last. Almost two lakh applicants had been praying for this day.'' Although the CBI did not reveal the names of those whose homes or offices were raided, there was speculation that the list included the properties of M M Mishra, the then in-charge of the ``computerised'' draw of plots, and officials H C Papreja and R S Yadav. The sleuths were reportedly grilling Yadav and Papreja when reports last came in. A computer firm on Sarojini Naidu Marg in Lucknow was also raided.

The draw of cancelled plots included some plots which had been allotted but did not exist in the authority's sector plan.

It may be recalled that the apex court had ordered a fresh draw of the scheme. But Noida Authority has approached the Allahabad High Court for permission to shift these plots from one sector to another.

During the draw held on July 2, 2005, Noida Authority had allotted 58 plots from number No. 1 to 57 in D 168 Block.

These plots were of 250 to 300 sq mt. in size, each. In the initial probe, it was found that in D Block of Sector-50 plot No D-168 was not included in the residential plan of the authority.

Now this plot No D-168 has become a big problem for all departments of Noida authority, right from planning to the computer list.

Noida Authority had an opportunity to rectify its mistake when the draw was cancelled. The allotment rate of these plots has however jumped from Rs 6,750 per sqm in 2004 to Rs 16,750 in December 2007.

Actually when the authority had prepared the list of vacant plots before the draw, the number of this plot was D-169. Some 15 plots had been allotted in this block earlier.

Similarly plot No C-344 in Sector-122 was allotted in the category of 122 sq mt size whereas in Noida Authority's plan this series is of 300 sq mt. size.