The Hindu Business Line : `A first home'

Seemanto Roy, Head, Infrastructure and Housing, Sahara India Parivar, spoke to BrandLine on why Aamby Valley City is proving to be a hot draw with high networth individuals.

There is a perception that Aamby Valley rates are too steep.

The offer is quite reasonable considering the world-class facility and infrastructure which we are providing the buyer. The product is exclusively designed as per the needs of the customers by renowned architects and the given price gives good value for money.

Are there a growing number of affluent Indians who are willing to pay that kind of price for a weekend getaway?

First of all, we are not selling the product as a weekend getaway, but as you always required a certain time to develop a city, the costumers are treating it as a second home, which will finally develop into a first home. And yes, there are good numbers of Indians who have already invested in the property, and they are still growing.

Are you worried about the number of me-too projects coming up in and around Lonavala, offering only a fraction of your rates?

We are targeting only the high net worth individuals for this exclusive project. Basically, the product has a niche market. The projects near Aamby Valley City are minuscule in nature and we are not in competition with such entities.

What are the group's RoI expectations from the project?

As a business group, we have already done our strategic future planning and based on that we know that we will be getting good returns on our investments in the near future.

Is it true that the restructuring plan, for which E&Y has been hired, includes some tinkering with Aamby Valley?

E&Y has been associated with the Sahara group for quite a long time. We are using them to generate some reports for internal use only, nothing else.

Have the Sahara Airways sale proceeds helped tide over any cash crunch that the Sahara group may have faced once?

There is nothing such as cash crunch in the Sahara group. Air Sahara was one of our business units and we are getting a very good deal. Selling Air Sahara makes good business sense.

Are you looking to bring in strategic partners at Aamby Valley?

This is not true. Right now there are no strategic alliances or partnerships we are looking at.

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