Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday signed MoU with Swedish furnishing giant IKEA which will open its first store in Noida and make an investment of Rs 5,500 crore in the state.
The MoU was signed virtually at the Chief Minister residence in Lucknow in the presence of the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Industry Minister Satish Mahana, Noida Authority and IKEA officials. The company was handed over land lease deed papers on the occasion.
Ikea has bought 12 acres of land in Sector 51 of Noida at a cost of Rs 850 crore and paid stamp duty of Rs 56 crores. IKEA’s Country Property Manager David McCausland signed the land papers on behalf of the company.
It will be developing integrated commercial projects having shopping malls, hotel, offices, retail areas in 5 lakh sq feet area in Noida.
The company officials claimed that the construction work on the land bought will begin shortly. The IKEA investment will generate 8,000 direct and indirect employment to thousands of people.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that it was a golden opportunity for the company to invest in Noida where Asia’s largest Jewar International Greenfield Airport is coming up. He assured company officials all support and hoped that the company will further expand and make investment in other cities of Uttar Pradesh.
Peter Betzel, IKEA India CEO said in a statement that the company plans to set up a mix of large and smaller city centre format stores, with e-commerce facility, in Uttar Pradesh over a period of next seven years.
The world’s largest furniture and home product retailer had got approval from India in 2013 to invest 10,500 crore to build a supply chain infrastructure and open 25 stores by 2025. IKEA had opened its first store in Hyderabad.
