Expressway may fuel real estate boom

One of the most ambitious projects of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis — to connect his hometown Nagpur with financial capital Mumbai by constructing an 800 km long Mumbai-Nagpur expressway — has the potential to create tremendous real estate investment opportunities in Marathwada and Vidarbha region.

Experts feel the expressway will give rise to demand in industrial real estate, which will in turn create more demand for residential complexes in the regions of Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur.

It is interesting to note that Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has also claimed that the expressway will pass through the most backward regions of Maharashtra and it also has plans to bring up IT parks, smart cities and educational hubs along the expressway wherever possible. MSRDC also has plans to have CCTV cameras and WiFi on the expressway.

Ashish Garde, president, chamber of Marathwada industries and agriculture, said, “Currently there are mainly six types of industries in Marathwada region which mainly surround Aurangabad.

“They include auto components, engineering, pharmaceutical, brewery and many home grown IT companies.

“Once Mumbai-Nagpur expressway is opened up we expect this IT companies to get external support in expanding and also this may result to more employment opportunities, which will result in demand for residential spaces in the surrounding region.”

Ashutosh Limaye, research head, JLL India, real estate consultancy, said, “There is no doubt that infrastructure brings in more investment in the surrounding area. “Once the Mumbai-Nagpur highway is out for use we are sure that there will be growth in industrialisation of the Marathwada and Vidarbha region,” he said. “If there are going to be more industries we can expect to have more demand for residential complexes as industries will demand labour and to accommodate them there will be a need for housing. There will surely be an indirect demand of residential real estate once the expressway is ready-to-use,” Mr Limaye added.

The expressway is expected to have six lanes and the state government also has plans for having it converted into eight lanes with tow service road if there is enough land acquisition possible on the stretch. The expressway will cut down the time taken to travel between Mumbai and Nagpur to 10 hours from 15-17 hours currently.

However, Sudhir Paliwal, convenor, Vidarbha environment action group, said, “We can say that there will be a boost for industrial and residential real estate in the Vidarbha region, but we also need to understand that there will always be unrest among the local population as they will have to give away their land and also this leads to migration.

“Big industries and warehouses for cold storages will come up and in a way compete with the local industries. There will be no growth for the locals of Vidarbha region. We can say there will be ‘Distribute and store in Maharashtra’, but not ‘Make in Maharashtra.’

Meanwhile, MSRDC has appointed Ernst and Young as the consultant for the project and it will come out with a detailed project report (DPR) for the project in next three months.

Dream Scheme Estimated cost of expressway: Rs 30,000 crore Project to be implemented on cash-contract basis and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is expected to fund the project Deadline: 2019 Implementing agency: Maharashtra State Road Development Cooperation Features: WiFi, CCTV cameras. IT parks, educational hubs and smart cities wherever possible