Hyderabad Reebok Store is World's Largest

By Vipin Agnihotri

It was my pleasure to see the biggest Reebok store of the world in Hyderabad. This Reebok store is spread over 15,000 sq. ft and across three floors on the upmarket Jubilee Hills Road of Hyderabad. The store is built to give a leg-up to the single-brand shopping experience. As is the case with most of the Reebok stores, in this store too there are wide array of choices for people in terms of buying.

Riding up an escalator surrounded by a two-storey high glass wall stacked with footwear reveals the big range on display. It is worth mentioning in this regard that there are some 400 different kinds of footwear that you can choose from. The best part about this Reebok store is that it is suited for every customer. For example, if you are a bit tight on budget you can buy shoes in the price range of Rs 2,290.

With the main emphasis on service and tremendous ambience paramount to Reebok's objective to offering an experiential shopping experience, the newly opened Reebok store will give a larger-than-life feel to the customers. Point to be noted here is that products at the store are displayed by categories such as Running, Walking, Aerobics, Tennis, Cricket and Lifestyle.

The million-dollar question which now arises: Why did Reebok choose to do all this in Hyderabad? I guess they did it because Hyderabad is not only the second biggest city after Bangalore in the southern part of India but also Hyderabad government is offering investor-friendly atmosphere at present. If you add this up with solid infrastructure and real estate boom in the city, there is hardly a surprise that Reebok opened his biggest store in the Hyderabad.

It has come into the notice of The India Street that because of the limitations on foreign direct investment in retail, Reebok has opted for a franchise model in India. Interestingly, this super-size store in Hyderabad, too, is one such franchise outlet. According to sources, the plan now is to grow its presence not just across the country but also in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns.

The Reebok Store Nagarjuna Circle, Road No.1, Panjagutta (G.S. Chambers) Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082 Phone: (40) 66633055

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Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune turning into urban nightmares

By Vipin Agnihotri

The IT boom has turned cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune into cities of opportunities. But on the flip side, it has turned these cities into urban nightmares. Over the last 10 years, the tech boom has resulted in the creation of swank campuses, jobs and more epithets.

Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India and Hyderabad is known as India’s uber-cool Cyberabad. If experts are to be believed, the dazzling growth of these cities has not just brought in dollars and pounds but also large-scale migration, traffic jams, pollution and creaking infrastructure.

In Bangalore, serpentine traffic jams are a daily routine as thousands of code-jocks make their way to Electronics City- home to Wipro, Infosys Technologies and other tech majors. In terms of statistics around 18,000-20,000 cars trundle up and down Hosur Road, en route to Electronics City.

The city’s infrastructure is decaying across all segments. In fact, it faces a chronic power shortage of around 1,000-1,500 MW and public transportation is erratic and inadequate to say the least.

Pune’s traffic woes are pretty much identical to those in Bangalore but it also has its own sets of other problems. It is worth noting that Pune’s foul air has ‘Talibanised’ its women, who have to wrap dupattas around their faces to escape the smothering pollution. The recent study has come to the conclusion that Pune is the 13^th most polluted city in the country. A World Bank report has ranked Pune as Asia’s fifth most polluted city.

According to government figures, the number of vehicles registered in Pune is growing at a rate of around 9 per cent per year and has crossed the 14-lakh mark. On the other hand, Gurgaon’s infrastructure belies its position as India’s third largest IT hub. However, lack of parking spaces, traffic jams and daily power cuts continue to challenge the city’s growth.

Compared to Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon, Hyderabad seems to be better off- at least for now. Hyderabad is in a much-better situation because it does not face issues on the utilities front.

Even better, Hyderabad is in the process of building infrastructure such as new international airport and flyovers. The only problem in Hyderabad seems to be the increase in commuting time which has been forced by a slight delay in the completion of a couple of flyovers.

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In Pictures: New GMR International Hyderabad Airport

****NEW GMR Rajiv Ghandi Airport Update Click Here ****

Status Dashboard Month : July 2007 Recent Milestone : Completion of Chiller Plant Room Project Progress Construction Started

The Hyderabad airport project seems to be on track for an April 2008 opening. Of all the airports we have studied here, Hyderabad’s seems to be the one closest to meeting its proposed opening date. I’ve also observed that the roads leading to and from the airport are very flat and smooth as compared to the other photos I have seen around the other India airports we have studied (see picture below). In fact, throughout the country the roads are not smooth or flat due to inadequate equipment. With the new import restrictions loosening, hopefully India will build smoother roads.

Most recent Progress (August 21, 2007)

Control Tower

Terminal

PTB View

PTB View 2

PTB View 3

Traffic Arrivals

Look at how smooth and flat the roads are here

Links to Artist’s Impressions online (click to enlarge)

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India grants more SEZ Approvals

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: To consider proposals pertaining to the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the The Board of Approval (BOA) of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met recently. The Board also approved other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs. In this meeting, 53 applications for setting up SEZs were considered and 36 Formal approvals and 9 In-principle approvals were granted.

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Prominent among the Formal approvals are: Electronic Hardware SEZ by Foxconn India Developers Private Limited in Tamil Nadu; Aviation Sector SEZ by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited in Andhra Pradesh; One IT/ITES SEZ and one Gem and Jewellery SEZ by Omnibus Industrial Development Corporation of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli; Three SEZs for Biotechnology, Light Engineering and Pharmaceuticals by Navi Mumbai SEZ Private Limited in Maharashtra; IT/ITES SEZ by Reliance Infocom Infrastructure Private Limited in Maharashtra and six IT/ITES SEZs by Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu in various Districts of Tamil Nadu and MAS Fabrics Textile SEZ in Andhra Pradesh which is being developed with 100% FDI.

Prominent In principle approvals granted are : Electronics and Electrical SEZ, Engineering Equipment & Components SEZ and a Multi Product SEZ by TIDCO in Tamil Nadu; Multi product SEZ by DLF Limited in Rajasthan; Aerospace related industries SEZ by KIADB in Karnataka.

With this set of approvals, the total number of SEZs granted formal approval is 339 i.e. 339 SEZs are there with land and of these 126 have so far been notified. Investment of 35145 Crores has taken place so far and current employment in new SEZs is about 33000 persons. It is expected that by end of the year additional employment in the new SEZs would cross 100,000.

The Chairman of BOA Shri G.K.Pillai, apprised the Members of the Board that the Central Government has issued certain instructions with regard to approval of SEZs and the land acquisition for SEZs and the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments have been informed that the State Governments would undertake acquisition of land for SEZs only when 100% of the owners give consent. The State Government representatives were informed that if any proposal for compulsorily acquired land comes up, the same would not be notified as SEZ. It was also advised that to the extent possible, double crop and multiple crop lands should not be acquired.

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Will Property boom sustain in India?

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: Presently, there is no asset bubble, so nothing to worry for people possessing property in the Indian Real Estate segment. After a bullish run for two years, the graph of the booming real estate market seems to have begun to slide. This has resulted in a virtual meltdown in the real estate segment which was considered to be overheated until a few months back. Now the realtors are setting their sight on sub urban areas for development due to the competitive land prices pushing themselves away from the metropolitan high ends. The experts in this segment suggest that in the three primary segments of the real estate development; primarily residential, commercial and retail, the strong growth with sustainability is achievable by the year 2010. Despite of the graph sliding down, ranking fifth in the retail sector from amongst 30-emerging global retail markets, the Indian real estate segment is being predicted to witness an investment of Rs 100 billion the next two financial years. And if the corporate survey is to be believed, the country will also see a steep rise of 1.19 lakh job opportunities in the real estate segment in the next financial year. The good news for investors and developers is a survey conducted by Knight Frank, a global real Estate consulting group. It states that the real estate segment in India is growing at an annual rate of 30% on the overall basis while a 20% growth rate for the organized retail segment by financial year 2012 is in the offing indicating the retail industry witnessing over a Rs. 100-billion investment up to financial year 2010. Industry feedback and business associations indicate that a large number of firms have evinced interest in setting up special economic zones (SEZs). In the commercial space segment, business opportunity is led by the unprecedented outsourcing activity in the country that in turn is driven by Information Technology (IT) or IT-enabled services. Many global firms are setting up back offices and outsourcing their work to India. According to research carried out by Knight Frank, as the trend gathers pace, commercial space requirement will expand to 100-million sq. ft. by financial year 2008. Of this, almost 75% to 80% will be contributed by the IT / ITES industry. Growth in this sector is being fuelled by incentives given by the Government of India, which has attracted huge Foreign Direct Investment. For example, the Dubai-based real estate major Emmar group is busy setting up SEZs in Haryana at an estimated investment outlay of $1.5-billion. Now days, developers are not risking their moolahs on high priced lands and are under heat at this point of time. The main problem persisting in the real estate market is the affordability. With the prices of all the three segments Sky rocketing, affordability has become a cause of concern for the realtors. This is also because of the high interest rates applied on the developers which are virtually passed on the consumers when they buy properties. Another reason for the realtors for backtracking is the increasing prices of not only land but also allied purchases including cement. The developers are feeling the heat as they are also not finding if feasible to control the labour problem at this point of time. The static income level of the middle income grade individuals who are the real investors in the market, has also added to the woes of the developers. Developers feel that the time is ripe when the Government should step in and introduce salt pans for development to woo the foreign investors who are looking forward to invest in the country. After the strict guidelines by the Reserve Bank of India to the banks directing them to only approve loans selectively and to those only with proper approvals for the land, the business has further being held up. While, investment in the residential segment is estimated to cross the Rs. 9,000-billion mark in the next five years, the number of households that are estimated to be built in the next five years stand at over 5-million. And, all this real estate construction is expected to create a surge in the growth for demand of raw materials, such as cement. Presently, 30-million sq. ft. of available mall space in India is expected to increase to 100-million sq. ft. by financial year 2010. Of the total mall space to be developed, around 75% is in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad and National capital Region (NCR). The rest will be in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Ludhiana. And over the next three years, 300 malls are to be developed in the country including those in the sub urban areas. Reliance Industries announced its retail venture with pan-India footprint covering 1500-cities and towns that will involve an investment outlay of Rs. 25,000 Crore.

Merrill Lynch in its report on real estate trends predicts that the number of malls in these five cities - Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune will to reach up to 250 by the financial year 2010.

After US & UAE, Singapore gets bullish on India’s property boom

Impressed by the buoyancy of Indian real estate, Singapore property firms are seeing to establish their presence in the country with high profile projects.

To name a few, there is RSP Architects, The WIRE Group, CPG Group and JTC Corp’s Jurong International, sitting on projects totaling more than 500 million sq ft of floor space.

Jurong International is coming up with a Mega Township in Amritsar. The project will spread over 80Ha. Close on the heels is RSP Architects with a project concerning development of a 1 million sq ft IT Park in Bangalore.

When the craze of developing Special Economic Zone (SEZs) in India has overpowered the domestic builders, how can the international developers stay behind? Joining the SEZ race is CPG Group, a new player from Singapore, who is all set to build a SEZ over the land of 13,000Ha in Mundra, Gujarat.

To see the involvement of Singapore real estate firms in broader way, picture the available office space in Singapore’s Central region, including the shopping malls and corporate towers in its downtown core and Orchard Road. Multiplying the figure by 4 will give the exact sense of business. Entire of which in India is solely being handled by a single Singapore design company – RSP Architects.

Even smaller players, such as CPG, are incredibly busy. CPG has at least 30 million sq ft of projects completed or under construction. Apart from biggies like Jurong which has as much as half of it, other small players, such as CPG, are also busy in pushing their property projects on course.

A number of important real estate projects in Tier II cities like Hyderabad are in hands of Singapore architects. Around some US $45 billion worth of projects are under construction across in India, says the data showcased by property surveys.