With real estate projects creating a wave around the country, developers are getting more and more creative in their approach. BILT, Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC) and Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group have come together to develop hill stations in India. Lavasa, 200 kilometres away from Mumbai, at 3,000 feet above sea level, spread over 25,000 acres, will be the site for a hill station. It will, in fact, be independent India?s largest self-contained hill station, completely developed by Indians.
Lavasa Corporation is aspiring to be a tourism-cum-knowledge economy with a local population of 1,10,000 that would live, work and play at Lavasa. Apart from tourism, hotels, resorts and convention centres, the company is looking at attracting IT, ITeS and BT firms, R&D companies, corporate training facilities, and studios for art, fashion and animation. The management reckons that it has the potential to generate revenue worth Rs 1,40,000 crore, once starts operating at capacity.
The project could see an investment of Rs 30,000 crore over the next 12 to 15 years.
Lavasa COO Rajgopal Nogja said the company has so far invested Rs 700 crore on the project. Lavasa is looking at diluting equity by 5% to raise about Rs 500 crore.
Early settlers are already coming in. Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, ITC Fortune Hotels, Novotel and Grand Mercure from the Accor Group are setting up the hotel and resort infrastructure. Girls? Day School Trust, a UK-based IB residential school, Ecole Hotelier de Luasanne of Switzerland and Symbiosis will be the education providers. Apollo Hospitlas will have a 200-bed hospital and a wellness centre across 200 acres. Infosys is being wooed to set up its Mysore-kind of training centre. The project will have studio apartments(Rs 13-14 lakh) and bungalows for Rs 1 crore.