Dubai realty firm to foray in Gujarat

The world's largest real estate company, Emaar group along with its Indian partner, is knocking the doors of Gujarat's realty market.

Emaar MGF Land Pvt Ltd is planning to invest over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in townships, hotels, malls, and IT parks in the state. In the subsequent phases, the group plans to pump in more money as the company is bullish about the state. 

Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd is a JV between Emaar Properties PJSC Dubai and MGF Development of India. Emaar Properties has a market capitalisation of over $40 billion and is the world's largest real estate company.

It has to its credit projects like Burj Dubai project, regarded as the tallest building in the world, which will be ready by 2008.

Talking to Business Standard, Shravan Gupta, managing director of Emmar MGF Land Pvt Ltd said, "Gujarat appears in the second phase and initially we will pump in Rs 1,000 crore. We are planning to come with a township in Ahmedabad which will be spread over 400-500 acres."

The phase two for Gujarat will begin after two months and the company is in the process of scouting land in various places of Ahmedabad.

"A four or five star business class hotel will to be a part of the township in Ahmedabad," Gupta further said.

Going by the previous track record of Emaar Properties, the company has a tie up with Armani Group and Armani hotels have been a part of many of their projects be it even the Burg Dubai building. "In India we have plans to set up Armani hotels only in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore," according to Gupta.

Gupta further said, "We have a panel of world class architects and the quality of our design in Gujarat will be without any exception of international standards. Ahmedabad has very good architects so we might rope them in.

Also, we are open to enter into a tie-up with a local developer, given that he has a good track record."  The township will also have educational institutes, besides it will pave way for better parks and roads.

Emaar MGF will also set up a mall in Ahmedabad. "The mall will be two notches above the rest and will be spread in over half a million square feet," according to Gupta.

Plans are also afoot to set up an IT park for which the company is actively considering the Gandhinagar area. The IT park is driven by end-user hence the scale and size will be lesser than Bangalore or Hyderabad.

Talking about the IT prospects in the state, Gupta said: "It is only a matter of time before it finds its rightful place in the sun."

Emaar MGF is also scouting for land in Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot for setting up townships, hotels and malls. "After Ahmedabad, our next preferred destination in Gujarat is Vadodara. Simultaneously, we will also concentrate on Surat and Rajkot," Gupta said.