The Hindu Business Line : For those looking to retire in style

The 200-home enclave is the brainchild of some of the city’s leading medical practitioners and designed by well-known architect Jaisimh. Built on a 30-acre land in the green belt area in South Bangalore, it has all the facilities that an active retired couple would need: swimming pool, club house, gym and Internet café, in addition to the facilities required by the elderly residents like medical care, personalised catering, meditation hall and emergency medical care.

Suvidha is promoted by Sushruta Vishranthi Dhama, a company formed by a group of well-known doctors of the city, who are also nearing retirement, but do not want to compromise on the lifestyle they have led so far. Promoters of the project include Dr K.S. Shekar, well-known plastic surgeon and Chairman of the company; Dr Subba Rao, a leading cardio thoracic surgeon and Managing Director; Dr Jinka Subramanya, a pathologist and Joint Managing Director; and Dr Srimani Rajagopalan, a gynaecologist, who is one of the directors.

About 120 of the 200 cottages have already been taken up by well-known citizens of the city, including architects, senior government officers, professors, writers and corporate executives. “Most people think your lifestyle should change after retirement. We want to disprove that with all our facilities. But we also realise that ageing people would need medical care and sometimes it could be an emergency and we have several doctors living in the village who would extend their support to residents,” says Dr Subba Rao.

Cottage particulars

A standard cottage at Suvidha is about 840 sq ft carpet area and offers a single bedroom, lounge, kitchenette, two balconies and two bathrooms. It also offers an additional bedroom at extra cost of two per cent of the basic amount, but the total area of the cottage does not change. Solar water heaters, a small garden and wheelchair access are regular features in all cottages.

As the property is located in the green belt area and there are restrictions on resale of land/property in the area. Each resident has to invest in shares of the company to have exclusive use of a cottage.

All residents will have an equal number of shares and equal say in the functioning of the village. Shares in the company entitles one to live on the property and even resell it, but after a period of five years.

The shareholder, however, also has the option of selling the shares back to the company, if it is during the lock-in period. After the demise of the original shareholder, the shares can be transferred to nominated heirs.

Green belt

Being in the green belt area also means that only 50 per cent of the land would have built-up area, and so Suvidha would have no high-rise buildings, but only valleys, hillocks, a man-made lake and walking paths.

Each resident would thus have to buy 15,000 shares, which works out to about Rs 30 lakh at current market rates. Residents also have to pay a monthly maintenance fee of around Rs 4,500 for facilities such as 24-hour security, health visits by doctors, golf carts to move around the property, laundry, housekeeping, food delivery and other administrative services. The first phase of the project is expected to be launched by January 2010.

More Stories on : Promotions & Offers | Real Estate & Construction | Karnataka

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