By BASANT RAWAT
Sanand, Oct. 8: From paddy land to a pot of gold, Nano’s new home is seeing what Singur saw two years ago — a real estate rush and skyrocketing prices.
Cars laden with brokers and property agents scouting for land lined the dusty roads of Sanand, 35km west of Ahmedabad, a day after Ratan Tata announced that the small-car plant would be relocated here. The government has handed over to the Tatas 1,100 acres of land, which was with the Anand Agricultural University and used for cattle grazing.
Govindbhai Dodar, a real estate agent who claims to have handled queries from dozens of people eager to buy plots near the site, said land prices had gone up 500 per cent in the past 24 hours.
“Until yesterday, the price of land in the seven villages surrounding the 2,250-acre university campus was around Rs 5 lakh per acre. Today, we are quoting Rs 25 lakh per acre. In the days to come, the price will go up further,” Dodar said.
Farmers owning land near National Highway 8 connecting Mumbai with Delhi have already hit a jackpot.
The government has acquired from them a little over 50 acres to construct an approach road from the plant site to the highway, a distance of around one-and-a-half kilometres. As compensation, the government has agreed to pay the farmers Rs 45 lakh an acre.
The road leading to the cattle farm resembled a real estate mela with scores of brokers negotiating prices over cups of tea and beedis, confident that Sanand will become Gujarat’s Gurgaon.
The scene was reminiscent of the one in Singur two years ago when the Tatas decided to set up Nano’s mother plant there.
From around Rs 5-8 lakh an acre, the price of land along the Durgapur Expressway had shot up to Rs 35-40 lakh. Since the pullout last Friday, brokers fear the prices, like the “Bengal’s Gurgaon” dream, will come crashing down.(END) Source: The Telegraph
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