Link road expansion to cut travel time from Dwarka expressway to Hero Honda Chowk

GURUGRAM: The tender for the six-lane road connecting DwarkaExpressway with Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, also known as NH-8, is likely to be floated in August this year, said Haryana PWD minister Rao Narbir Singh in Gurugram on Sunday.

Talking about the project, the minister said, “The tender for the six-lane project, including a flyover at Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, will be issued in August,” said Narbir.

TOI had earlier reported that GMDA will develop a six-lane connector from Dwarka Expressway that will meet NH-8 at Hero Honda Chowk. It will be an expansion of the existing 5.8km-long two-lane road between Hero Honda Chowk and Dwarka Expressway.

The road, which is mainly used by Old Gurugram residents as an alternative route to reach NH-8, witnesses massive snarls due to huge volume of private and commercial vehicles. The road was earlier supposed to go up to Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, but was later extended to Dwarka Expressway. Along with a flyover at Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, the same project will now include another flyover at Basai Chowk.

The total cost of the project was earlier projected at around Rs 147 crore, but the minister didn’t give out any information on the cost escalation on Sunday.

The six-lane project was first proposed during chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit to Gurugram in April last year, when he had inspected various ongoing projects in the city. Khattar later announced a revamp and widening of the road in August, after it was approved by GMDA in its first meeting.

Following Khattar’s announcement, the state government sought funds from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), though the latter eventually did not sanction the funds, said Narbir. “Since NHAI declined to take up the project, the state government decided to develop the six-lane road on its own, through GMDA,” said Narbir on Sunday.

Narbir was speaking at the inauguration of road carpeting work of the road connecting Sector 10 to Pataudi, which was carried out at a cost of Rs 80 lakh. Narbir also spoke of the upcoming bus stand and railway stations, both of which are being developed to meet “international standards”.

“Development works worth Rs 10 crore will be carried out in the city in 2018-2019,” said Narbir.

Making a pitch for the upcoming state elections, he said development at this scale is only possible because the chief minister has got his priorities right and has Gurugram’s best interests in mind. “One could be of any political lineage, but everyone will agree Gurugram has seen a lot of development over the last four years,” said Narbir.

Source :  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/link-road-expansion-to-cut-travel-time-from-dwarka-expressway-to-hero-honda-chowk/articleshow/64152214.cms

Blackstone in Talks to Buy Commercial Property Portfolio from L&T for Rs 2.3k Crore

MUMBAI: US-based private equity player Blackstone Group is in advanced talks to acquire two commercial properties of L&T Realty, totalling 1.7 million sq ft, in a deal valued at Rs 2,300 crore, said two persons familiar with the development.

 

This portfolio of the real estate arm of engineering major Larsen & Toubro includes about 8 lakh sq ft of fully-leased commercial tower at the L&T premise in Powai suburb and another 9 lakh sq ft office block at the company's commercial project at Seawoods, in Navi Mumbai.

The Seawoods office tower — yet to be completely leased — will be acquired in phases, the people cited earlier told ET. 

 "The deal is expected to be inked by late February as due diligence is currently in its final stages," said one of the persons cited above, adding that L&T Realty will assist in further leasing at Seawoods commercial block. 

 Both L&T Realty and Blackstone Group declined to comment. 

In 2016, Blackstone had bought a 1-million sq ft retail mall, adjacent to the office tower in Seawoods, from L&T Realty for over Rs 1,400 crore. L&T Realty's office block in Navi Mumbai is part of India's largest Transit Oriented Development Seawoods Grand Central, a mixed-use development area over 40 acres that includes the mall and other commercial spaces.

The persons cited earlier said Blackstone is acquiring these assets directly and not through existing joint ventures with Bengaluru-based Embassy Group and Pune's Panchshil Realty. The New Yorkbased institutional investor has acquired assets and stake in portfolios independently earlier too. The commercial tower in Powai is completely leased and has JP Morgan Chase, Colgate-Palmolive and L&T Infotech among its tenants. Being a fully-leased property with long-term contracts, the Powai asset is valued at Rs 1,500 crore and has a capitalisation rate of about 8.5%

Cap rate is ratio of net operating income of the property to its asset value. 

Over the past few years, Blackstone has emerged as the most aggressive institutional investor in India's real estate sector, picking up properties across major cities in deals that are turning out to be benchmarks in the sector. The company owns India's biggest portfolio of incomeproducing office assets, totaling over 31 million sq ft across key property markets of Noida, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. 

The private equity player established its India office in August 2005, and since then has committed over $6 billion to companies in the country. In its real estate portfolio, Blackstone has over total 19 companies that own 31 million sq ft across 18 operating office parks, and it has invested $2.7 billion in these assets. It also has 11 million sq ft of commercial space under development across the country. 

Large global institutional investors including Blackstone Group, Asset Management, GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Goldman Sachs and Qatar Investment Authority have been investing aggressively in Indian real estate assets over the past few years.

Source : https://goo.gl/FjyPQA