REAL ESTATE TAMILNADU AND KERALA

True Value Homes (TVH), a leading engineering, construction and project management firm, plans to launch affordable housing projects in Kochi, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Tirupati, Madurai and in multiple locations in Chennai in the next three months.

According to a press release from the company, the demand for affordable housing in India is still far outstripping the supply. The shortage in the low-income housing segment is estimated to be around 2.1 crore households. This presents a Rs13-lakh crore opportunity for developers. The affordability of a house for an average middle-class household has been defined to be in the Rs 3-10 lakh range. At this price, there could be a potential of 21 million buyers.

Mr N. Ravichandran, Chairman, True Value Homes India Pvt Ltd, said in the press release, “Addressing the growing demand of the affordable homes segment, TVH Svaya is poised to provide world class housing, which is now within the reach of the middle class.”

In Chennai the company has launched TVH Svaya, a $60-million residential project spread over 13 acres with 840 apartments of 555-1,085 sq.ft and priced between Rs14 lakh and Rs 23 lakh. TVH Svaya is situated in Sriperumbudur, a suburb to the west of Chennai on Kundrathur High Road. It targets the middle class family earning a cumulative income of Rs 5 lakh per annum. The apartments would be ready for occupation within six months of booking. TVH is a professionally managed company based in Chennai which has completed more than 4 million sq.ft of built-up space, with about 6 million sq.ft under construction and 28 million sq.ft in the pipeline covering residential and commercial property across Tamil Nadu.

‘Infrastructure thrust vital'

India's economic growth has to be supported by adequate and sustainable infrastructure development, according to a report “Infrastructure Development in India: An Assessment of Status and Strategies” by NCAER. The report provides a review of the progress of infrastructure development for seven sectors.

As the economy has accelerated growth, the utilisation rates of infrastructure have gone up whereas infrastructure building is itself lagging. There is a need to improve implementation performance. The report suggests full exploitation of the current potential of the infrastructure sectors; slack capacity in one sector also implies less than full utilisation of capacity elsewhere.

The report covers seven sub-sectors of infrastructure — power, telecommunication, roads, railways, airports, ports and irrigation.

The release, quoting Mr Suman Bery, Director General, NCAER, said “The Eleventh Five year plan (2007 to 2011) projected investments in infrastructure development to the tune of $500 billion. The current economic slowdown has cast some doubts on the scale of investments that may be possible in a short period of time, but there is a wide recognition that infrastructure development would be essential for sustaining high rate of economic growth over a longer term which in turn is necessary to achieve developmental goals.

“This study points to areas which require attention to improve performance in infrastructure development. It is hoped that this report will act as a useful source of reference to policy makers, academics, corporate sector and the public-at large on Infrastructure development in India.”