Thanks to KCR, Seemandhra lands turn gold mines

Hyderabad: When there was stiff resistance from Seemandhra people to the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh for various reasons, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was spearheading statehood for Telangana, was the villain of the piece.

Today, the very same bifurcation has brought cheers to landowners, including farmers, at least on one count: their land prices have shot up abnormally across the length and breadth of the coastal Andhra and parts of Rayalaseema, making them richer many times over.

The coastal belt, extending from Vizianagaram to Tada on the southern part, and the Tirupati region in Rayalaseema have been witnessing a massive spurt in land rates ' whether it is in agriculture sector or real estate sector, over the last six months.

The landowners are richer by 100 per cent to as high as 900 per cent. The proposed State Capital Region, spread over Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali, in particular has become the epicenter of intense real estate activity amidst steeply rising land rates.

New and potential investors from Andhra Pradesh, hitherto focused on investing their money in and around Hyderabad, are now looking up to the coastal Andhra, particularly the new capital region, for their future investments.

According to highly placed sources, over 50,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have responded positively to the appeal made by AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to put their money in the development of the residuary State.

In the next couple of years, each of them is expected to invest at least Rs 2 crore on real estate development in the new capital; which means, there would be inflow of over Rs one lakh crore as investments in the coming days.

The AP government's announcements about setting up various projects and institutions in various parts of the State have triggered speculations on prices and investors are scouting for suitable areas for business ventures.

Naidu had announced Agriculture University at Guntur, IIM at Visakhapatnam, IIIT at Kurnool, Tribal University at Vizianagaram, Central University and a satellite centre of AIIMS at Anantapur, NIT in West Godavari, AIIMS and NIDM at Vijayawada/Guntur, IISER and IIT at Tirupati and Petroleum University in East Godavari.

Besides, he has big plans for developing the entire Nellore-Vizag belt as part of the Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) and the Chittoor-Anantapur belt as part of the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC).

In addition to the existing ports at Gangavaram, Kakinada, Krishnapatnam and Visakhapatnam, the State government proposes to develop 10 more ports at Kakinada (second one), Machilipatnam, Dugarajapatnam, Bhavanapadu, Ramayapatnam, Meghavaram, Nakkapalli, Kalingapatnam, Bheemunipatnam and Narsapur.

The State government has prepared plans for the development of international airports at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati. This has led to a steep rise in the prices of agriculture lands in almost all parts of the State, except in parts of Rayalaseema like Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur.

'The market prices here are still stable, compared to other parts of the new State. However, as the developmental activities pick up, there would also be a growth in the land values,' a real estate venture capitalist opined.

However, Vijayawada and Guntur region have become a hot spot for investors, who are ready to grab at least one acre of land hoping a bounty in the future. The nerve-center of the business, Tulluru, is witnessing number of visitors every day enquiring the space available.

The area on the banks of Krishna River, which was in the third place in terms of real estate business after Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, has relegated the port city to the third place and occupied the second slot.

However, realtors of Visakhapatnam are optimistic that as the real estate business in Vijayawada ' Guntur region has reached a saturation point and their city would bounce back and witness a beehive of activity from the beginning of the next year.

The rates of the lands between southern Vijayawada and Guntur have shot up to 100 to 900 per cent and the rates are changing each day, flabbergasting investors. The phenomenon that the business has reached a saturation point within a month's time is showing the pace of the business taking place here.

The areas around Tullur are attracting investors from Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, becoming the new land of business opportunities and promising golden prospects in the future. As per the estimation of real estate businessmen, about 1.5 lakh acres of land is involved in the business.

The average price of the land is about Rs one crore and the total business available here is about Rs 1.5 lakh crores. Most of the businessmen are ready to purchase the land that would be taken over by the government under land pooling for construction of capital city, as the government has said that about 1,000 sq. yards of land would be given back. Even the rates of the plots have risen greatly as each sq. yard has been priced at about Rs 15,000.

The AP government's announcement that its capital would be located around Tullur village has stirred up a huge business of land sales. The areas around the 16 villages selected for the construction of capital city have become a great attraction for real estate people.

Biryani centers and hotels have sprung up here overnight on cultivable lands to cater the needs of the inquisitive real estate investors. 'Around 70 cars have visited this area in the past one month,' said SivaramaRaju of Vijayawada. He said that the business is being carried on in makeshift tents.

Greater Vijayawada Builders Association general secretary V SubbaRao said that the real estate business was concentrated from Tadepalli to Amaravathi via Mangalagiri, including Tullur and other 15 villages.

He said that the areas where the rates of the lands were Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakhs per acre till a month ago were now priced at about Rs 1.50 crores. He said that in this region about 65,000 acres of land was available for the business, apart from 40,000 acres of government land.

SubbaRao said that since the government was planning the capital city according to the vaasthu, it would gradually reach Gannavaram and Nuzividu areas in the future and said that this would bring back northern Vijayawada into the limelight soon.

'Plans of the government like expansion of the airport at Gannavaram and indications that Gannavaram would be developed as software region would certainly help this area to come back into focus,' Subba Rao said.

However, another prominent city of Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatanm is watching the developments in Vijayawada with curiosity. City businessmen are confident that soon their areas would become attractive to investors.

Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) Vizag chapter president B Raja Srinivas said that the post- bifurcation period had seen a 25 per cent increment in the prices of the city real estate transactions.

He said that plots business from Anandapuram to Anakapalli have seen less rise in prices. He said that in these areas the rates of the plots were in the range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 75,000 per sq. yards and they had registered 25 per cent increase upon bifurcation.

He said that the prices of apartments between Madhurawada and Karmanna Palem had also seen a marginal rise. Meanwhile, the areas on the southern part of Vijayawada, after Amaravathi have seen no improvement in the business as the government did not announce any activity there. The prices of the lands in the areas between Markapuram and Vinukonda are stable.

As far as Tirupati is concerned, the stagnation has ended and the business is picking up. CREDAI Tirupati chapter president Rajasekhar said that the business had come to a halt during 2013-14 and now the sales and purchases were taking place.