BHOPAL: The investors’ summit organised by the Smart City Bhopal evoked a mixed response. Instead of Smart City impressing the investors, the summit ended up with the industrialists sharing their views and suggestions. Most of the businessmen suggested making the offers more investor friendly.
The Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (BSCDCL) organised an investors’ summit at Minto Hall on Wednesday to attract capital through sale of land.
The BSCDCL has planned to develop about 354 hectares of land in the heart of the city. The summit was called to explain investors about terms and conditions of sale of 98 land chunks to investors.
CEO KVS Chowdhary made a presentation explaining all the facilities provided by the BSCDCL besides other conditions related to making bids for land and its payment conditions.
Questions and suggestions were invited after the presentation. Majority of the investors asked the BSCDCL to reconsider their payment conditions. BSCDCL offered 25% payment as margin money and the remaining amount in maximum six months.
Most of the investors had a different take on the two conditions. They said according to banking terms margin money should be brought down to 10-15%. For the remaining amount, investors should be given 3-5 years time for making payment in installments.
“You (BSCDCL officials) make plans to fit in the government's plan. We plan considering market conditions and investment returns. Gammon project was started with much hype- but its end is known to all,” said an investor.
“Due to Covid pandemic commercial spaces are shrinking and on the contrary Smart City is expanding. Moreover, Bhopal offers few opportunities in terms of business. According to the basic prices decided by BSCDCL, a plot is priced at Rs 30 crore, calculating other expenses including registry etc it will cost around Rs 40 crore. It means an investment of about Rs 100 crores is required. The proposal made by BSCDCL is not attractive from investors point of view,’ said an industrialist.
One of the investors said that BSCDCL might be able to sell 10-15 plots but going with your offer you will not be able to sell all 98 plots. You need to make your proposal more attractive, he added.
“Noida and Greater Noida were developed on the same formula. Investors were given time up to five years to make complete payment. Their margin money was also kept as low as 10-15%,” said another investor.
However, the positive side of the summit was that the BSCDCL was open to all suggestions and noted most of the suggestions saying they will be incorporated.
