Next month Hirco will start delivering the first of the residential apartments to the buyers at the 360-acre Hiranandani Palace Gardens township coming up at Oragadam, a fast growing suburb to the southwest of Chennai.

This is among Chennai’s largest township projects which, in its final form, will have 10,000 apartment units and over 50,000 residents with the needed physical and social infrastructure to make it a self-contained town.

A 100-acre business city, entertainment, education and healthcare facilities are all to come up at the township. The first phase of 928 apartments is to be completed over the next year and a half starting from June when 30 buyers will take possession of their apartments.

The project site is a scene of hectic activity as more than 2,500 workers labour on buildings of various sizes, including ‘low rise buildings’ consisting of ground plus three floors and ‘high rise buildings’ of stilt plus 15 to 27 floors. The buildings are in different stages of completion. First to be delivered will be the low rise buildings with apartments of 3-4 BHK.

Hirco had organised a visit for this correspondent to look around the project site. As we go around the completed sections, Hirco’s, Principal Executive Officer, Mr V. Suresh, draws attention to labels next to the doorways of the apartments, those are the names of the owners who are to take possession of the apartment, he points out.

‘Snag list’

Company staff are poring over a thick file checking off a ‘snag list,’ items that need to be given once over — the details include doorknobs and stoppers, switches, handles, bathroom fittings… everything should be as it should be before the unit is handed over next month, says Mr Suresh.

It is not just the finer details that have been taken care of but also the major amenities. The township will have a 2.3 mld (million litre a day) water treatment plant with 4 mld storage, a 1.8 mld sewage treatment up to tertiary stage to enable recycling of waste water for use in the landscaping and toilet flushing.

The construction conforms to the green rating for homes set by the Indian Green Building Council, he says.

A bank is in operation and soon a café will be in place. Adequate power back up is available, and power from the State grid will soon follow, he assures.

In the 30-acre first phase, 928 apartments are under construction spread across two towers of 15 floors; six towers of 27 floors and 11 low rise buildings. Next month 32 apartments are to be handed and from then on deliveries will continue every month.

By March next year 160 apartments in the low rise buildings are to be handed over and a 15-storey tower with 60 apartments is also to be completed. In June 2011 the second 15-floor tower will be ready and in stages deliveries will continue up to October when the first phase will have been handed over, he says.

Second phase

Work on the second phase is expected to start next month for which all approvals are in place. Spread over 10 acres, this stage will have 650 apartments on four towers of 26 storeys and four of 15 storeys. Nearly 70 per cent of the units have been sold, says Mr Suresh. These units will be of 2- and 3-BHK units.

Referring to the demand, he points out that the project was launched in 2007 at a base price of about Rs 2,400 a sq.ft and now the prices are around Rs 3,650, and in addition people pay a floor rise of Rs 25 a sq.ft for every higher floor they buy in the high rise buildings. Off take is pretty good, he comments. In Chennai alone last month over 35,000 sq.ft of space has been sold. This project has attracted the attention of NRIs in various countries where Hirco’s marketing teams are busy, he says.

Business city

The next phase will be a 37-acre spread with 2,317 apartments on 11 towers of 31 floors. These will include the 1 BHK apartments and up to 4 BHK. So far Hirco project has focussed on three and four BHK units, he said. In 2011, depending on market conditions, Hirco will launch one more component of the township, the commercial space on 118 acres called the ` Hirco Business City.’

Nearly 4.5 million sq.ft of built up space on three towers of about 14-16 storeys are to come up. This will cater to office and commercial space in IT, ITES and other sectors.

To support the long-term vision of Hirco’s township Oragadam is a key location, says Mr Suresh as he stands on the 15th floor level of one of the residential towers and points to the bustling industrial activity in the area. Through the haze and glare of the midday summer sun, one can see the manufacturing facility of an automobile manufacturer, a forge, an auto components unit that have recently commenced operations.

And these are just a handful of the scores of similar units coming up within the 1,900 acre Oragadam industrial estate. The residential project is 3 km of State highway 57, which links NH 45 at Singaperumalkoil, about 15 km away, to Sriperumbudur.

Both these locations are also major industrial hubs with MNCs, automobile OEMs, components, electronic and hardware manufacturers. Within years the industrial activity in Oragadam alone will support over one lakh employees. Hirco’s Palace Gardens is a mixed use township right in the middle of this industrial belt, he says.

Hirco is an international group with interests in real estate, construction, healthcare and hospitality. It is developing two large townships, the other is in Panvel Mumbai, with over 66 million sq.ft of development in both these townships.

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