Witnessing a robust real estate development across all sectors, Nagpur and Kochi lead the IT/ITeS commercial space revolution among the tier III cities in India today according to a recently released report by Jones Lang LaSalle. While it is Smart City developed by the Dubai Internet City Group at Kakkanad that is spiralling the growth in Kochi, the Multi-modal International Passenger and Cargo Hub Airport (MIHAN) project is what is pushing Nagpur onto the realty map.
Though at present, the total grade A and B office stock in Kochi and Nagpur is about 0.8 and 0.25 million sq ft respectively, the report says that this is expected to rise to 2.0 and 0.7 million sq ft respectively by 2008-end. The reasons for the rise of Nagpur and Kochi range from large operational cost savings and availability of fresh talent to the possible tie-ups, which the IT/ITeS companies can forge with educational institutions in these cities.
Says Abhishek Kiran Gupta, senior manager, research, Jones Lang LaSalle, ?With rising real estate costs and paucity of land in tier I cities, tier III cities like Nagpur and Kochi are expected to emerge as the next destination of choice for many IT/ITeS companies in the next 2-3 years. These upcoming cities have advantages such as high literacy rates, favourable demographics, strong educational infrastructure, cost-effective real estate, high interest from the NRI community and availability of skilled labour to name a few?.
The Smart City project in Kochi is to be developed over 1,000 acres, out of which 200 acres has been acquired till date. Experts feel that the project will provide a great opportunity for Kerala to compete with neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to attract IT/ITeS sector business.
MIHAN, on the other hand, is expected to enable Nagpur emerge as one of the largest logistics hubs in the country. It will include an international airport, SEZs, IT Parks, a health city, an international school, a captive power plant, manufacturing units and rail-road terminal.