RIL School of Geophysics in Hyderabad

Reliance Industries is contemplating setting up of a School of Geophysics and Geo-sciences in this city, given its proximity to Krishna Godavari basin and basins on the east coast that have huge oil and gas potential.

Speaking on the company's future plans for Andhra Pradesh, RIL Chairman and MD, Mukesh Ambani, told reporters here that fundamentally, within India there is a need to build capacity for geophysists and geo-scientist and we will seriously look at building a school in this regard at Hyderabad."

"We have spent billion of dollars on exploration. For Andhra Pradesh, whatever oil and gas we find, should first benefit the local people. It should go to the households of the local areas which we will pursue single-mindedly," he added.

Speaking about other sources of energy, which needed to be tapped apart from oil and gas, he said there was a potential in nuclear energy, which was also related to geo-sciences as uranium findings have to be done.

"India is underexplored in minerals and the potential for the country is very high," he said.

On looking at other states for reserves of oil and gas apart from Krishna and Godavari, he said, "We will work as team India to find more gas and oil reserves."

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Medchal and Uppal real estate information

Now the subsequent area that is going to turn gold is Medchal and Uppal. As the land prices of area surrounding Hi Tec City have gone to saturation point, now, the eyes of Realtors and Software business heading towards Medchal on one side and Uppal on the other side.

The area between Medchal and Toopran is now being sold at modest prices of Rs. 2000 to Rs.2500 per sq. yard and the same is estimated to grow about 10 times in the coming 5 years. Proposed Satyam IT Park, Jain International School, Mulitiplex and many cosmopolitan hubs are making the area glitter with growing prices.

Experts say that the land that was worth Rs. 500 per sq yard till a year ago is now being sold up to Rs. 2000 in Medchal-Toopran area.

On the other side, an IT park is proposed in Uppal and thus the land prices started igniting a few weeks ago.

Reliance Fresh Malls, Magna, AC Restaurants and Hotels are seeing light on Ramantapur- Uppal Road from quite a long time making the place happening and active unlike before.

The land prices are rocketing up and now Ramantapur costs Rs. 20,000 per sq yard. It is still destined to shoot up to double in coming two years.

The Gen Next happening places in Hyderabad twin cities are going to be Medchal and Uppal.

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Right time to invest in real estate

If you thought you missed the IT boom, and then the ITES and BT (biotech) industries propelling the real estate market, you've got nothing to worry about. The time to invest appears to be now!

Analysts predicted doomsday in 2002, but the bullish market never looked back. In 2004, speculators turned their backs but the market raced ahead. Now in 2006, they are all back in the race. Some with regret of missing the boom and others who stayed faithful to the market are now celebrating the booty in their bank accounts.

The analysts have pushed the `doomsday prophecy' a few years further. Foreign direct investment is flowing in abundantly; and investment in real estate is at its zenith, the highest in the history of India.

Murlidhar (54) claims he is a conservative investor but says: "I invested all my life's savings into purchasing a plot at Whitefield. An investment that runs upto Rs. 40 lakh is a considerable sum of money for me, but I am confident that the deal is for the best and will bring me good returns."

Dabholkar, who is in his mid-forties, is a small-time investor with a healthy bank balance. "I started off with investments from Rs. 3-10 lakh in the 80s and the 90s. Today I am looking at investing in property worth Rs. 1-2 crores."

If you remember the famous dialogue of Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar "Mere pass gadi hai, bangla hai, bank balance hai," the neo-rich young businessmen of today reflect just that.

The young today own flashy cars and luxury apartments; a sure sign of the changing times. The famous indicators of a flourishing industry, however, are not just sophisticated IT parks or expensive apartments.

Take a stroll through every main street of the city, and you see umpteen number of swanky restaurants and international-standard malls. All of this points to one direction — growth.

With growth being the mantra of the 90s and the millennium speaking of growth to the power of `n', there's nothing stopping India and more specifically, Hyderabad, which is currently in the limelight from riding the real estate growth wave.

This year's budget cast a gloomy picture on the real estate industry. Firstly, increasing the interest rate of home loans and then highly taxing the construction industry. There was huge speculation that the market would fall, but the final outcome was hardly surprising. The bull just stopped for a breather and charged ahead without glancing back!

The time is now, pick up your phone and make your queries. Find out which would be your best bet, a plot or an apartment. Plan out your mode of investment.

If it is an apartment,, you can choose from a wide range of projects spread over different locations and price ranges.

If you are still sitting in your living room, regretting that you might have missed the train, there appears to be one heading your way right now. Get on it today.

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Nokia launched first concept store in hyderabad

Nokia India launched its first Concept store in the state, at Hyderabad on Thursday. With the launch of this store, Hyderabad becomes the fourth Indian city after Delhi, Bangalore and Jaipur to have such a store.

The state-of-the-art, 2,650-sqft exclusive retail outlet, would showcase the entire range of Nokia devices across its entry, mid range, multimedia and enterprise categories, besides giving the consumers a retail experience by offering them a first-hand feel before making a purchase decision.

The concept store will also be the first Nokia outlet in the country to have a dedicated ''Nokia Music Lounge'' to give city music lovers the ultimate music experience.

It will also have an Nseries lounge where the customer will be able to check out a wide range of Nokia Nseries multimedia devices, and a dedicated 'Nokia Music Lounge', Nokia India director (marketing), Devinder Kishore, told mediapersons.

Kishore said that the company would be announcing a series of such stores in the country in the next two months, while declining to share any numbers pertaining to the retail expansion and investments.

“We will be tying up with realty players for setting up these stores, wherever the potential exists,” he said.

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Near shamshabad 500 sq yards plot available

500 Sq Yards 50-Feet road facing plot is for sale. Plot is located at Amity park, Shamshabad.

1. Amity Park is around 5KMs from the Shamshabad Internation Airport and other major projects
2. Amity Park is highway-facing venture - immediate next to the Bangalore Highway (National Highway 7)
3. Amity Park venture is well-developed layout with black-top roads and 24-hours water
4. It is DTCP approved

The expected price is Rs 5800 / Sq Yd and it is negotiable.

If you are interested, please contact Satish Nandala at 678-983-9262 (Cell)

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HUDA adds up three more projects

The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is all set to take up three more major projects in its limits next month.

They are: townships for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) at Badvel, cluster of hotels in Shamshabad and development of Poppulguda as a ‘Golden Mile’ on the lines of Kokapet.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper, HUDA vice-chairman Jayesh Ranjan said that HUDA had already started the process of framing guidelines, identifying developers and preparing tenders. ‘‘Once the guidelines are framed, we will announce publicly about these projects next month,’’ he said.

The State Government had handed over about 200 acres in Poppulguda to HUDA. It would take possession of the land soon and auction the plots.

The land was an evacuee property taken over by the State Government recently. Like Kokapet, this would be developed as another ‘Golden Mile’ and sold. The Kokapet land fetched about Rs 700 crore.

HUDA proposed a cluster of hotels around Shamshabad for which 150 acres had been earmarked. With the international airport coming up in that area, there was a need for star hotels in the vicinity.

HUDA would take up townships exclusively for NRIs at Badvel. Modalities were being worked out, Jayesh Ranjan said.

The proceeds from these ventures would be utilised to fund other development schemes, he added.

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Hyderabad is next sports capital

The State Government is making all efforts to develop Hyderabad as a sports capital of India and a full-fledged metropolitan city, Municipal Administration Minister K Ranga Rao said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after inaugurating multipurpose sports complexes at Vijayanagar Colony and Golkonda, he said that Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was concentrating on the development of Hyderabad by implementing prestigious projects like the Outer Ring Road (ORR), beatification of River Musi, cleansing the Hussain Sagar lake, Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) and other projects.

He complimented the efforts of Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) for constructing the sports complexes and colony parks in various parts of the city.

He also assured that various ongoing projects including sports complexes would be completed in a time-bound manner to make Hyderabad sports capital of the country.

The youth has an important role to maintain these complexes for future generations, he added.

Mayor T Krishna Reddy said that MCH was planning to provide better facilities to budding sportpersons by constructing such complexes wherever they are required.

The MCH budget which was Rs 350 crore in 2002-03 has now been increased to Rs 1,078 crore for 2007-08. This explains the rapid strides being made by the Corporation to develop the city.

Apart from inauguration of multipurpose sports complex at Vijayanagar Colony-II, Pavilion Building- Vijayanagar Colony-I and Sports Complex at Golconda as many as 70 colony parks were simultaneously inaugurated on Monday.

MPs V Hanumantha Rao, M Anjan Kumar Yadav, Asaduddin Owaisi, MLAs Moazam Khan, Afsar Khan, Deputy Mayor Subash Chanderji and several corporators were also present on the occasion.

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Real estate ventures and mutual funds

Funds are thriving and fund action continues unabated in India’s booming real estate market. TSI Ventures, an equal joint venture between Tishman Speyer and ICICI Ventures, has mopped up over $1-billion, barely 15-months after it was floated.

This, while there are even more mega funds in Indian real estate’s pipeline. We have Actis looking at an India specific realty fund, and US-based Apollo Real Estate Advisors teaming up with Sun Group, just so they can pump in investments into the domestic real estate sector, a market which is probably, throwing up better yields than its peers amongst the emerging markets.

TSI Ventures multiple closing fund, which came into existence with $500-600 million, is currently seen to be crossing $1-billion, according to sources in the know. TSI, focussing on from the ground up projects, recently closed its first $100-million investment for 1.5-million sq. ft. project in Hyderabad. The fund is now closing in on deals in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, one of which is a large integrated township.

Prakash Gurbaxani, CEO of TSI Ventures says his firm hopes to be managing and operating between 25,000 and 30,000-million sq. ft. space, both residential and commercial, over the next five to seven years. This could make it one of the largest real estate asset management entities in the country, as it targets a figure far bigger, than some of India’s largest realty houses have come up with, to date.

Meanwhile, UK-based private equity major Acentis bullish on the consumer products space, is exploring the possibility of an India-specific real estate fund. This fund could look at pure play realty, hospitality and tourism sectors. Currently, Actis operating the $500-million India specific fund, made investments and effected buyouts in the consumer products and services domain.

Last week, US realty major Apollo Real Estate Advisors forged a joint venture with Khemkas controlled Sun Group for its India foray with a $500-600-million fund, which could show up as nearly $1.5-billion in the future.

A group of former Morgan Stanley executives has floated $500-million India fund, Old Lane, for the infrastructure sector, which would also look at financing commercial real estate projects. The others exploring the domestic real estate action include London-based $300-million Duke India and a $100-million Saffron fund. The industry experts are hinting at cross-border fund flows of roughly $4-5-billion into the country over the next 12-18 months.

While, the fund action in realty is expected to gather momentum, with about 50-60 new ones India bound, questions are being raised on the investment avenues available in the country. Industry observers’ note, publicly listed realty stocks are far fewer in India compared to China and Hong Kong, even though the domestic market is better placed in terms of transparency.

That is nothing to get into a tizzy about, just as the Indian real estate market gains greater transparency, publicly listed realty stocks may soon match China’s and Hong Kong’s. Indian realty is the best bet for your bottom dollar!

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