North Chennai turns smart for city developers

C Shivakumar/ ENS

Chennai:

After Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitly announced that Ponneri in
North Chennai would be one of the three smart cities in
Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor, city’s real estate developers
hope there will now be equitable distribution of quality development
for urban population in four sides of the city.



North Chennai termed as a settlement of blue collar workers would gain
prominence with the smart city springing up in Ponneri, according to N
Nandakumar, president of Tamil Nadu chapter of Confederation of Real
Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI).


He said that one doesn’t know the amount of land is required for the
smart city but there will be a capital appreciation in the area.
“Currently, the growth is happening in south and western corridor.
With the proposal of smart city in North Chennai, now large scale
development would happen here too,” he said.



However, he has a word of caution for small sized investors. “Don’t
take a hasty plunge, It would be an attractive investment but nobody
knows where the smart city is coming up,” he said.



Besides Ponneri, the other two smart cities planned in the industrial
corridor are Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tumkur in Karnataka.



Interestingly, JICA is currently preparing a masterplan for
development of around 3,000 hectares of land in the area.



The masterplan would include industrial parks, residential area
besides commercial space, says senior representative of Japan
International Cooperation Agency Ichiguchi Tomohide.



But Nandakumar says it would be a challenge for the government as they
have to acquire huge tract of land for the project