$16B City Planned for Outskirts of Mumbai
Intent on securing financing for large-scale live-work communities outside India's largest cities, Vancouver-based RIRIC partners with a New York investment bank.
MUMBAI — Vancouver, BC–based infrastructure company Royal Indian Raj International Corp. has partnered with the New York-based investment bank Greenwich Group International to secure $1 billion in debt and equity for the development of new cities outside India's largest metropolitan areas.
"In US terms, we're talking about a major suburb where 300,000 to 500,000 people will live and work on a daily basis," says an RIRIC source. "We will be selling it as: get away from Mumbai and come live in this bright, clean, modern city that is completely Web-enabled."
The planned city near Mumbai would cover 5,000 acres and cost between $6 billion and $12 billion to develop. It would create 10,000 new jobs directly and another 40,000 on an indirect basis, alongside billions in tax revenue for the state.
Earlier in the year, RIRIC announced plans for a 6,000-acre Royal Garden City near Bangalore's new international airport — a $9 billion first phase calling for 145 million sq ft of built space across 3,000 acres, including 35,000 residential units, a CBD, industrial, entertainment and cultural districts, educational facilities, civic amenities, and parks. Dubbed the first modern "Smart City" in India, the program included captive electrical generation, modern water and sewage treatment, and advanced water recycling and harvesting.
"With the Indian real estate sector in transition and recent landmark legislation allowing foreign direct investment in real estate, the opportunity for participation in this formerly closed market is heightening," said RIRIC chief executive Manoj Benjamin. "The opportunity remains significant in light of RIRIC's first-to-market advantage and India's 80-to-100-million unit housing shortage and colossal infrastructure demand."