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Getting ready: The Lavasa project under construction at the foot hills of the Sahayadri mountains in Maharashtra.

S. Shanker

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Mumbai, June 21 It is an all-new town in the making, encompassing 11 villages and 25,000 acres. Nearly 12,500 acres hugging the 20-km long Warasgaon Lake have been earmarked for a high-end urban canvas called Lavasa.

A good three-hour drive from Mumbai, Lavasa could rank as the empress of all hill stations by 2020 — the projected time for the completion of the project.

Mumbai-based Hindustan Construction Company is developing the picturesque environs of the Sahyadri Mountain according to a master plan developed by the US-based design consultant HOK. Infrastructure development is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore and revenue generation remains hazy given the 10-year plus development schedule.

Lavasa’s design has already bagged two international awards — from the Congress for New Urbanism, US, for the ‘Best Master Plan’; and an ‘Award of Excellence’ from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Given the scale of development at 2,000-plus ft above sea-level, the promoters are in a hurry as they anticipate the town to host 20 lakh tourists and a resident population of 1.5 lakh a decade ahead.

The residential area comprising villas and studio apartments will have 40,000 units, while office space will account for 10 per cent. Eighteen hotels with 4,000 to 4,500 rooms have been planned. Serviced apartments are scheduled to open sometime next year, as also a budget hotel, said Mr Andrew Nathan, Executive Vice-President, Business Development, Lavasa Corporation.

Lavasa currently has six hotels under development in various categories, including properties managed by leading hotel chains Accor and ITC Group, with a combined capacity of about 1,000 rooms. A convention centre with a plenary capacity of 1,500 persons is to be commissioned in 2009.

Tourism and water-based sports, along with multiple theme parks, are planned for rollout in 2010.

Apollo Hospitals is setting up a 200-acre health and wellness centre, including hospitals, and centres for R&D and long-term care.

Lavasa Corporation has signed up with the University of Oxford to develop executive education facilities and the Girls’ Day School Trust, UK, to provide expertise for a residential school starting in 2009.

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, a hospitality school in Switzerland, will also offer expertise and the first student intake is planned for 2009. Symbiosis, Pune, and Christ University, Bangalore, which are both deemed universities, are setting up campuses in Lavasa.

If the theme for the Rs 60,000-crore Knowledge City Bidadi is walk-to-work, at Lavasa it is ‘live, work and play’ in harmony with nature. As many as 20 streams empty into the lake.

Apart from HCC, promoters include the Avantha Group and Venkateshwara Hatcheries.

More Stories on : Real Estate & Construction | Infrastructure | Maharashtra

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