13 December 2007

Knowledge City to be set up in Visakhapatnam

Unitech Ltd has come to an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up the Vizag Knowledge City on 1,750 acres of land near Vishakapatnam, for which it will pay Rs 3,328 crore over a ten-year period. At Rs 52 lakh per acre, it may not be the most expensive deal in the country, but it is among the largest in terms of the acreage from a single source in a single deal. The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) had invited bids to develop the land for the Integrated Vizag Knowledge City. Dubai-based Al Hamra Real Estate Development LLC had also qualified for the bid, but dropped out in the final stage. Unitech executives said that the company will invest more than Rs 20,000 crore (which includes the cost of the land) to develop a total 10 million square feet of built-up space Into an infotech park. There will be villas, high-rise apartments, shopping centres and hotels as well as school and hospitals, an entertainment park and a 250-acre golf course. Unitech expects sales of Rs 75,000 crore from the project. Unitech declared land reserves at 10,700 acres in September 2006. DLF recently won the bid to develop the New Bangalore township on 9,000 acres, at Bidadi, near Bangalore. While the Rs 60,000 crore project is the largest by size and investment, only a part of the land will be made available by the state government and the rest will have to be acquired directly from farmers at about Rs 56 lakh an acre. It is not yet known how much land DLF will get from the government and how much it will have to purchase from farmers. Unitech held the record for the most expensive land deal till August for a 300-acre buy, at Rs 1,582 crore in Noida last year. That was surpassed by DLF which bought 38 acres in west Delhi for Rs 1,675 crore from DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd and the Lohia Group.

Filed under: Hyderabad, SEZ, Unitech, Property, Visakhapatnam

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# ramya kanwal said:

A field for Vizag greenfield airport

Tuesday January 8 2008 08:15 IST

Express News Service

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HYDERABAD: The State Government’s efforts to set up a greenfield international airport near Visakhapatnam has gained momentum with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) zeroing in on Koruprolu at S Rayavaram as the appropriate site for the project.

Koruprolu is 4 km from the NH 5 and lies equidistant from Visakhapatnam and Kakinada. The site is considered good as the liability of rehabilitation is less and is suitable for SEZ operations on the coastal corridor.

Besides Koruprolu, the State Government had suggested three other places – Sabbavaram, Achyutapuram mandal and Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district – for the proposed international airport and requested the AAI to conduct a site selection feasibility study of the four places last year.

After visiting the four sites, the AAI has recently submitted a report recommending Koruprolu and the State Government has accepted the same.

The AAI, however, said the site was in close proximity to the existing civil enclave Visakhapatnam airport (Navy airport) and needs clearance from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for taking up a detailed survey of the terrain.

In view of the AAI report, the State Government has sought the MoD’s ‘in principle’ approval like stating S Rayavaram is acceptable to the Ministry from an operational angle and other considerations.

The proposed airport shall have a runway parallel to the runway 10/28 which is the most predominantly used runway at the Vizag naval airport.

“We are awaiting a reply,” officials told this website’s newspaper.

The State Government has also requested the AAI to conduct the geo contour survey and obstacle survey for identifying the precise runway orientation but the latter expressed its inability due to other commitments till June 2008 and no survey can be done till September, 2008 due to weather conditions.

22 January 08 at 7:09 PM

# Neeraj said: