Cable Corp enters city realty, to invest Rs 1,000 crore

Western suburbs of Mumbai are hot property. With an increasing demand for residential property, builders are converting old factories into residential projects. While players like Raheja, Kanakia Spaces, Sheth Developers and Oberoi have already made their presence felt, others are fast making an entry. In a recent move, Cable Corporation of India ( CCI) marked its entry into real estate with a Rs 1,000 crore-investment plan. The company is launching a new project on its erstwhile factory, which has now been relocated to Nashik.

Located in the western suburbs of Mumbai, this is a mixed-use project. The 22-acre plot of land is equivalent to about 3.5 mln sq ft of saleable area. A power cable company, CCI will operate in the real estate business through its subsidiary Cable Corporation India Projects. This would include residential, commercial, retail and hospitality segment of which a little less than 2.5 mln sq ft would be dedicated to residential segment.

“The overall cost of production in Nashik was much less as compared to Mumbai due to various state duties like octroi that prompted us to shift this factory to Nashik where we have our other units,” said Hiten Khatau, chairman and managing director, CCI. Thus, it was a natural progression from being a landowner to a developer, said Mr Khatau.

Touted as a luxurious project, the project would have 2 and 3 BHK flats, costing between Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore. The company is expecting to fetch Rs 2,500-3,000 crore from the project at the end of five to seven years. Another builder, Sunteck Realty, is developing a residential project closer to the above project. “A 1.5 acre high-end project, this land was bought from Pioneer Embroideries which had its factory in that place,” said Kamal Khaitan, managing director, Sunteck Realty. However, these will have only 3 and 4 BHK flats. The average price would be closer to a Rs 1 crore.

Easy accessibility to the highway and better infrastructure are the main reasons why developers are going to western suburbs, added Mr Khaitan.