If everything goes as per plan, then 3rd week of this month is going to see a watershed development in the history of Kolkata. No, it’s not the opening of another giant mall or plaza, nor it’s the unfurling of a grand plan to revive the city’s infrastructure. We’re by now practiced to hear these at regular intervals.
It’s rather about Kolkata’s coming of age at par with other Indian metros. It’s about the potential value Kolkata offers in the coming days.
As with every other aspect, the perfect barometer of a place’s demand is determined by the market. The ultimate test of a city’s desirability lies in how much one is ready to pay for a slice of it. If indeed so, Kolkata is surely the toast of the moneyed, and if present indications are any pointer, then it can be safely said that Kolkata’s realty is going to see dogfights in not so distant future.
Okay, let me pull the cat out of the bag. A TT news yesterday says that the KMC (Kolkata Municipal Corporation) is going to put a 5-acre plot bang opposite Science City on the bloc for a reserved price of a whopping Rs.500 crore.
Now that is an awful sum. One would recall that only last year the Emaar-MGF group bagged a 7-acre prime property beside ITC Sonar Bangla for Rs.35 crore an acre. Many eyebrows were raised and top Kolkata realtors strongly felt that it’s rather a flash in the pan than an actual reflection of ground situation.
Well, they have been proved wrong. Going by the TT report, Reliance Retail is ready to fork out more than Rs.500 crore for the 5-acre plot. But since government procedure needs a tender to be called, the same is being readied by 3rd week of May.
2 points emerge out of this recent development. One, Reliance is dead serious to enter Kolkata’s retail scene. Its recent acquiring of Park Circus market for ecord-making Rs.30.33 crore – see my story, Divide in the left) – is a good example of its intentions.
Two, with the strong possibility of the 5-acre plot exceeding the benchmark Rs.100 crore per acre, Kolkata is poised to cross Bangalore’s latest Rs.100 crore/acre buying by Shova Developer at the city’s CBD, and inch closer to Mumbai’s Rs.170 crore/acre rate at Kalina and Delhi’s Rs.200 crore an acre at Chanakyapuri.
Mind you, Bangalore’s CBD (Central Business District), Mumbai’s Kalina next to Bandra-Kurla Complex and Delhi’s Chanakyapuri are all well developed locales. Not so the Chandra Garden plot off Bypass.
Therefore if the KMC tender throws up prices that are closer to or more than the Delhi and Mumbai rates, it means only one thing. The market sees much greater potential in Kolkata than any other metro in the country. Any doubt?
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