Royal Indian Raj International Corporation announced on Thursday that it plans to invest $1 billion in the domestic real estate market across four cities -- Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and New Delhi.
The company, which is registered in Nevada, US, announced that it has plans to promote mega townships in the cities spread over an area of 5,000-6,000 acre each.
Manoj Benjamin, CEO and chairman of the company, said that these townships would be cities within cities and will provide all amenities including wireless connectivity. "These will be mixed use properties with residential, commercial and retail complexes. Our idea is to create townships such as the ones in Dubai," he said, while announcing the project.
The company has tied up with the New York-based real estate banking firm, Greenwich Group International, to secure $1 billion financing for the project.
Benjamin said that he was also looking at other avenues of financing. Further on, he informed that the total investment in the townships could go up to $11 billion over a ten-year period, but refused to say what were the avenues that were being explored. If the projects take off, this would be the largest infusion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian real estate market so far.
Benjamin said that the company was close to finalising land deals in each of the cities. However, he admitted that the formal permissions from municipal authorities were yet to come through. "We are waiting for the permissions to come through, before actually buying the land," he said.
He also refused to disclose the location of the proposed townships, citing the reason that once he discloses the location, land prices could go up. However, a state government press release on Tuesday said that the company had sought permission to build a township near Alibaug.
However, the company has no track record of building or marketing such large township projects. Its first ever real estate project, Royal Garden Villas 750 bungalows, to be built on a 17-acre plot in Bangalore, is likely to come to the market only by 2006. It was incorporated in India in 1999.