A Gathering of Great Minds

Share It

Great things happen when there is a gathering of great minds. The 8th Realty Plus Conclave & Excellence Awards -2016 South in Bengaluru was one such gathering. There can be nothing more invigorating than addressing the group of people who actually build and create ambience for humanity to develop and grow. The building industry has come a long way from small projects, family businesses and contractors instead of developers. Today, the sector is becoming professional with experts, architects, engineering services, project management companies and others specialists being engaged by proficient developers. I look forward to developers along with government develop brownfield holistic and sustainable projects for the economically weaker sections. Gatherings like these bring people come together, collaborate and prioritize to find the collective way forward. Ar. Sheila Sri Prakash Founder & Chief Architect - Shilpa Architects Planners Designers In my 30 years of experience in real estate, 2016 has been a landmark year as it’s seen some progressive steps from the government. RERA, GST, Land Bill, Demonetization, smart cities are some of the initiatives introduced. But, from industry point of view, single window clearance for approvals is the most important aspect that will directly impact the users positively as the cost of delay in approvals that ranges from one to three years is almost 30-333%. The RERA Bill does protect the customer and brings onus on the developer, financier, realtor but as the government agencies giving electricity, water and other approvals are not part the Bill. This will again mean the projects will not be able to be delivered on time and might lead to extortion. The implementation of the Bill is where the challenge lies. T. Chitty Babu, Chairman & CEO, Akshaya Homes I like to interact with the young generation as they are full of innovative ideas and the future of our planet is in their hands. The challenges facing the industry will find solutions, I believe, with urban factors changing, living features changing some appraisals will happen. We need to be sustainable in our thinking. However, this industry within it isolates itself; the integration of various vocations is absent. There are about 19 disciplines that go into creating a building. How many of us understand the importance of integration of all these professions. This conclave bringing together real estate professionals, developers and designers therefore is an important platform for everyone to deliberate on our responsibilities. Architect, Prof. Krishna Rao Jaisim, Founder - Jaisim FountainHead With the growing urban population and housing, infrastructure augmentation is an immediate need of the city. However, the government plans to build more infrastructure sometimes hit a roadblock as they probably are not able to market them well to the public. By a recent estimate, Bengaluru is absorbing 12 million square feet of space annually which means 120,000 new jobs for the population and so much more demand for retail and transport. Similarly, developers are misunderstood though they are into building spaces – whether for living, work, entertainment etc. Developers have transformed barren lands into living communities with gardens and trees and housing. Important consideration is that environment should be integrated with the development. On that note, Realty Plus Excellence Awards, one of the most prestigious awards of the real estate industry has been recognizing the efforts of the developers for past so many years which is appreciable. IrfanRazack Chairman & Managing Director of the Prestige Group. Established in 1964, Karnataka State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited has been greatly instrumental in the industrialisation of the State, especially in the large and medium sector. The organization has been promoting PPP model of development for various projects and is keen to extend support to private developers interested in taking up public projects. Some of the major projects undertaken by KSSIDC include the Kempegowda International Airport, country's first green field International Airport at Devanahalli on Public Private Sector partnership. Other major projects among many where KSIIDC is the nodal agency are Bengaluru international convention centre for which private sector proposals are invited and Devanahalli Business Park that will be developed on BOT basis through the private sector on behalf of the government. It is a pleasure to be at Realty Plus conclave and meet the leaders of the real estate industry. This gives an opportunity to connect and work together with reputed industry professionals. C.M.Dhananjaya, Chairman, Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (KSIIDC) The mass transit systems are very expensive. For instance,Bangalore metro phase-I of 42 km cost is Rs.14,000 crores and the next 72 km cost in phase-II will be 26,000 crore. But, for a city that consumes 60% of national commercial space, the costs seem affordable. The building developers and mass rapid transit system needs to partner so that the transit system and property development can support each other. As per a report, 16% of total commercial space consumed in the country is in the corridor not in Bangalore but specifically in the corridor between the Central Silk Board and K R Puram(Outer Ring Road). The Bangalore metro has created a scheme called Innovative financing of metro system, wherein we are joining hands with developers like IrfanRazack and SushilMantri. It was observed that the prices of property go considerably high around metro stations and the idea was to leverage this price rise to fund metro station infrastructure. We built a metro station that was directly connected to Mantri mall by Mantri developers. Similarly, Cubbon park underground station will be linked to Prestige Group property directly. The developers funded the metro station project and in return received the benefit of direct access to their properties as well as higher FSI given the higher densification can be afforded by metro. ShriPradeep Singh Kharola (IAS), Managing Director Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.