Noida Extension India among top 3 areas to give top returns

Latest survey by property firm Knight Frank has revealed that out of the top 13 cities, Noida extension in NCR is expected to generate the highest returns for residential real estate investors over the next five year.

The report seeks to identify areas that will develop because of factors such as job creation, infrastructure development and lifestyle change. “We identified 100 cities using banking penetration, hotel room demand, and air passenger traffic as surrogates for business activities. For infrastructure development, the current and proposed investment in infrastructure were taken as proxies,” said Samantak Das, director, Kinght Frank.

The cheapest areas identified by the study are Noida Extension in NCR and K R Puram in Bangalore, where prices range around Rs 3,200 to Rs 3,245/square foot. At the other end are Wadala and Chembur, where market prices reign in the region of Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000/sq ft.

llion units does not reflect the demand for housing but the need. Employment generation will translate that need into demand by increasing affordability, he said, adding, “Our research is targeted at the end-user and not those who are looking at property for self occupation. We have projected the appreciation net of transaction costs but have not taken into account either the rental income or expenses for maintaining the property. In any case, the rental income will only be around 2%.”

Delhi No.2 among best cities to live in India

Find out how your city fares when it come to international living standards, quality of infrastructure, both factors that are critical to attract investors from across the world.

Major Highlights of the International Survey:

Indian cities  still a long way to go when compared to their global peers in the list of world’s best cities

Among the Indian cities that figure in Mercer’s latest worldwide survey of cities, Bangalore has emerged as the best city to live in India, closely followed by Delhi-NCR ,pipping other metro cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata, in terms of overall quality of living.

“Bangalore’s rise in its quality of living ranking can be attributed to positive ratings for international schools which are suitable for expatriates,” the report said. Rising from its 5th spot last year, Delhi and neighbouring region has also grown up the ladder on the list due to infrastructure and connectivity.

 Mumbai vs Delhi: Which is better city?

MUMBAI: The country's financial capital gets step-motherly treatment compared to Delhi, said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan during his visit to TOI's headquarters in Mumbai on Tuesday, promising to seek Rs 1 lakh crore from the Centre to develop the city's infrastructure.

Though Mumbai is evidently in greater need, Delhi since 2005 has received 34% more funds under the Centre's flagship urban development programme. For projects from roads and flyovers to sewage and heritage conservation, Delhi received Rs 1,821 crore more that Mumbai under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

"We need to have a window for megacities and some of Mumbai's major projects need to be elevated to national status," Chavan said, mentioning the Coastal Road Freeway, Mumbai Metro & Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, Navi Mumbai Airport, Virar-Alibaug Corridor and Interstate River Linking Project.

He said the Centre should invest in the freeway, given that most other metros, including Delhi, boast of ring roads. Also, he said, the Centre needed to think about what it intended to do with the vast amount of land it occupied in Mumbai.

Chavan said Delhi had an unfair advantage: much of its roads and flyovers are an outcome of events like the Commonwealth Games. Experts believe Delhi's political positioning makes it the favoured choice for international events and also attracts central investment. Senior bureaucrats say funding is a politically sensitive issue and Delhi clearly wins in lobbying.

But some experts say a funding comparison with Delhi does not hold. Santosh Mehrotra, director general of the Planning Commission's Institute of Applied Manpower Research, said parallels are unfair to draw as Delhi enjoys the status of a state. "If you compare the condition of Mumbai with Delhi's infrastructure, the former certainly is in greater need (of funds). But it is worth questioning why in our decentralized setup does the Maharashtra government not plough back the revenues it generates into the financial capital or what prevents the BMC from generating more revenue through taxing local sources."

Senior economist Abhay Pethe, who works closely with the state government, said much of Mumbai's problem lies in underutilization of funds. "In the last five years, we have not been able to spend the entire amount of JNNURM funds allocated to us. Delhi in contrast is more efficient with spending funds."

Officials at the Union Urban Development Ministry estimate that Mumbai has spent 95% of central funds compared to Delhi's 115% (percentage includes local body funding).

Some experts said Mumbaikars, fed up with their daily grind, had become immune to a gross lack of facilities and no longer engaged with their city's governance mechanisms. Delhiites in contrast were more politically motivated, translating into more effective governance despite the presence of many more governance agencies.

Green signal for PWD study to decongest ITO

                      Green signal for PWD study to decongest ITO

New Delhi: A new proposal to decongest the busy ITO intersection is in offing with the Delhi public works department being given the go-ahead to hire consultants for a study by PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan.There have been several proposals in the past which have not worked.This is a fresh study.Consultants will be asked to take into account the upcoming Delhi Metro plans and traffic density on various arms of the crossing in exploring possible link roads and loops, Chauhan said.PWD engineers are about to invite applications for consultants.If the cost of hiring consultants is within Rs 5 crore,the PWD principal secretary will give his approval or else we will take it to the finance department.The study will be a detailed one as the ITO is one of the most congested intersections in all of Delhi and a large area around the ITO Chowk must be taken into account, a senior engineer said.The latest proposals to have been junked include a couple of two-lane flyovers suggested by former directorgeneral of Central Public Works Department Bhisham Kumar Chugh.Chugh had proposed three flyovers and loops connecting Tilak Marg to Vikas Marg,Tilak Marg to DDU Marg and Kotla Road to Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.He had also proposed to make IP Marg one-way till Delhi Secretariat with traffic headed to Vikas Marg and Laxmi Nagar using the stretch.Earlier,there had been a proposal for a flyover at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg along with parking underneath and two half-flyovers at Ring Road to ensure a signal-free ride from Madhuban Chowk.Clearances from DDA and DUAC were obtained but the plan was shelved due to the BRT corridor pilot project.Another proposal mooted construction of a flyover right after Tilak bridge to the Times House on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg.Planners had suggested that the corridor could run over the flyover.IIT has proposed its own solution to the government,claiming that two dedicated bus lanes with shelters along the central verge could tackle the problem.

FIR against petrol pump for encroaching upon green belt

                          FIR against petrol pump for encroaching upon green belt

GURGAON: As part of the ongoing drive against encroachers of the green belt in the city, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has filed a FIR against a petrol pump located in Sector 44. The authority said the pump owner had encroached on 20 metres of green belt at both the entry and exit points.

HUDA officials swung into action after receiving a complaint from the Gurgaon traffic police recently. The initial complaint was regarding the traffic chaos near the petrol pump and the adjoining CNG pump. HUDA officials carried out a site survey and found the encroachment. As per HUDA records, the entry and exit points of the petrol pump were widened to accommodate more vehicles. “The extra space carved out after encroaching the green belt resulted in concentration of a large number of vehicles all the time. This led to the traffic chaos in the area,” said a senior HUDA official.

The HUDA survey report said 20 metres of green belt has been encroached upon at both the entry and exit points of the petrol pump and the CNG pump. “The encroachment of the green belt is liable for criminal proceedings. On the basis of the survey report, HUDA registered an FIR against the petrol pump operator,” said the official.

The civic body is also likely to write to the oil firms, Bharat Petroleum and Haryana City Gas Distribution Limited.

“Both the government companies would be asked to fix responsibility for the gross violation of the HUDA rules,” said the official.

The authority has cracked the whip on the violators who have encroached upon the green belt in all HUDA sectors. “There is zero tolerance policy on green belt. From now on, any violator will face police action,” said the official.

Meanwhile, some residents alleged that HUDA’s ongoing drive to remove encroachments from the green belt was selective. “There are so many restaurants, like the one in Sector 45, where the owner has encroached on the green belt and after sundown, it is converted into a sitting place for the customers.”

Property tax notice baffles residents

                                         Property tax notice baffles residents

GURGAON: Several residents who have got house tax notice, perhaps for the first time, don’t seem to be aware how to go about paying it. Acknowledging that there seems to be some kind of ambiguity over the payment of tax, the municipal corporation officials say the confusion is because of the change in the house tax policy announced a few months ago.

,While until recently property tax was being calculated according to the previous method and rate, the MCG has started sending new notices since the past fortnight. The new policy clearly states that ever since the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon was formed (2008), those living in self-occupied houses don’t have to pay property tax for the next two years (2008-09 and 2009-10).

,”Residents have to pay tax for the period 2008-09 and 2009-10 only if their house was rented out. They are however exempt from paying the tax if their house was self occupied. However, they will have to pay tax from year 2010-11 as per the amount in the notice they have received. We are aware that because of the new tax policy, there seems to be some confusion. Our zonal taxation officials too are not certain about the new policy,” said an official.

,”For the past few days we are sending tax notice to the residents and all that they need to do is come to the citizen facility centre opposite Civil Hospital in the old city and pay tax through cash, cheque or demand draft. They can also pay online on our website www.mcg.gov.in. For residents of new Gurgaon area we are planning to open a citizen facilitation centre in their area so that they don’t have to travel far,” he added.

Contractors rake in the moolah, but toll payers unhappy lot

                           Contractors rake in the moolah, but toll payers unhappy lot

NEW DELHI: Contractors operating the Gurgaon expressway and Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of NH-8 are making good money with a major chunk going to the highways authority even as commuters taking the two toll roads have been crying themselves hoarse for better facilities.

In three-and-a-half years till October, toll collection on the Gurgaon expressway was close to Rs 739 crore while it was at least Rs 1,188 crore on the Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch, minister of state for road transport and highways Sarve Sathyanarayana told Lok Sabha on Monday.

The list placed before the House had details of all NH projects where toll charges are collected either by agencies appointed by NHAI or by private concessionaires who have bagged projects under build-operate-transfer (BOT-Toll) mode.

While Gurgaon expressway is on the revenue sharing model where NHAI gets 50% of the toll collected beyond 1.2 lakh passenger car units (PCUs) per day, in the case of Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch, the authority gets 48% of the toll and this increases annually by 1%.

Though a few MPs in Lok Sabha accused the government of allowing contractors to exploit commuters by charging toll even when road work was not complete and their inefficiency in providing facilities, no question was raised on NHAI’s role even as it is earning money from these projects.

Responding to the alleged exploitation by contractors, highways minister C P Joshi assured the House that his ministry would resolve all toll issues which have cropped up including location of toll plazas because of awarding of different projects during different periods.

Gurgaon expressway project was awarded under the 1997 toll rules that allowed toll plazas within municipal limits. NHAI modified the rules in 2008, saying a toll plaza should be located at least 10 km outside any municipal area and that the minimum distance between two toll plazas should be 60 km. In recent times, there have been several protests against the Gurgaon expressway on these two counts. However, there is no such issue barring the hiked toll on Jaipur highway project since it was awarded as per 2008 toll norms.

Joshi told the House that his ministry would sort out the differences in norms due to the two different set of rules. He assured members that the ministry would negotiate with individual concessionaires to find a way out.

The minister also said that matters like discount to local vehicles could be sorted out and his ministry had started taking steps towards such negotiations.