Unitech plans exotic getaway near Delhi

Come October and Delhiites, who routinely hop on to a plane to for a 'Singapore experience', may find the deal more within their reach they ever expected.

Unitech, one of the largest publicly held real-estate developers and International Amusement Ltd, the promoters of Appu Ghar, will open to the public India's first manmade weekend getaway near Delhi.

The Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) project is being pitched as a more accessible alternative to exotic shopping destinations such as Dubai and Singapore.

"We have just raised Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) for the project from IDFC Private Equity and are on track to complete the first phase over the next three months," said Rajan Narula, Financial Controller of International Recreation Parks, the special purpose vehicle set to up to implement what is arguably the most ambitious recreational complex in the country.

Almost three years in the making, the 150-acre complex in Noida, expected to cost nearly Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion), is designed as the complete weekend get-away for city-dwellers.

"In the 75-acre first phase that we are launching this year, there will be three theme parks -- one for the family, one for teens and young adults and one for the kids. We have already got into a licensing agreement with Time Warner USA for replicating characters from the Cartoon Network," Narula explained.

The three sections of the park shopping area, theme park and the waterworks, is designed to provide two days of fun for city crowd.

Two out of the three sections, which will be inaugurated this year, will both have seperate entrances - one paid and the other free, in keeping with the company's strategy to woo both the shopping and recreational crowd, description of the concept sounds similar to advertisements for shopping-cum-fun destinations like Singapore and Dubai, which have been growing more and more popular with the urban Indian of late.

"The idea is to mix the joy of an extended, multi-day getaway with the joy of shopping," Narula points out, not oblivious to the profitable side of the proposition.

"Nearly 50 per cent of our shops have already been booked and the booking amount alone has come to around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion)," he adds.

Among the believers are chains like Shopper's Stop, Lifestyle, Big-bazar and Pantaloon and Globus. The in-house multiplex will be run by the Dainik Jagran group promoted Raves Multiplex. The company has got the Marriott hotel group to license their 'Courtyard' brand of mid-segment hotels.

"We expect 35 lakh visitors a year (10,000 a day) and will have the capacity to park 5,000 cars simultaneously, one of the largest in the country," he went on, adding, "the 150-room hotel is only the beginning. Once we finish the water-park during the second phase later on, we plan to have at least 700 rooms within the campus."

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