The Land of the Five Rivers is in for a major makeover by this decade’s end, with a real estate major i.e. Ansals, equipped with mega plans gets set to develop five townships and fifteen commercial projects, including a state-of-the-art entertainment and hospitality plaza in the city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple and a hotspot of tourist and NRI activity.
As the peace process between Pakistan and India struggles on, sometimes striding tall, sometimes limping along, Ansal API is pinning its hopes on a burgeoning of trade and movement of people and goods between the two warring neighbours, which is bound to increase, as trust and confidence grows amongst the two countries, both boasting a destructive nuclear arsenal.
Though, the Radcliffe Line may have partitioned Punjab, it failed to divide and dampen the spirit of people living on either side of a divided Punjab.
“We are expecting greater trade and movement of people in Amritsar, which would be the trading centre hub, apart from a place of religious significance in the coming years,� if Deepak Sachdev, Ansal API President is to be believed.
He promises Amritsar’s Ansal Plaza designed by world renowned architect Oru Bose will be developed, as a regional retail, entertainment and hospitality powerhouse, while offering the best in class and product experience.
Investing Rs. 11,000-crore over the next four years on the construction and development of 20-projects, Ansals plans to raise the money through debt and internal accruals. It is this aggressive and ambitious future planning that has led the Foreign Institutional Investors to increase their stake in the Indian firm from 9.45% to 14.47% at year-end 31st December 2006, compared to 5.02% of the previous quarter.
And, the major FII shareholders end of the latest quarter include, Citigroup Global Market Mauritius, Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd, Morgan Stanley and co and UBS Securities Asia Ltd.
Further, Sachdev confirms his firm has mega real estate project plans lined up for Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Pathankot and Amritsar. In Ludhiana, Ansals has tied up with Ritesh Industries to develop a housing project and business parks in a bid to replicate London’s Hampton Court.
Ansals has also entered into an agreement with Sanjeev Arora of Ritesh Industries, a garment exporter, to build in Ludhiana a 42-acre housing project and Business Park, with an expected revenue of about Rs. 800-crore. As well, the Delhi firm also has plans for the development of another township, business park and boutique mall in Ludhiana.
The real estate major has also signed up with Roots Corporation for the setting up Ginger, a budget hotel at a housing project in Mohali. As for Jalandhar, it is destined for two Ansals townships and a shopping mall, while the Delhi development group plans a multiplex and township each in Amritsar, Bathinda and Pathankot.
The Delhi realty major promises that its entry onto the Punjab real estate scene will change the state’s skyline forever. Ludhiana and other Punjabi towns and villages are to become more state of the art and hi-tech than simply dhabas serving butter chicken and frothing tumblers of lassi. The Land of the Five Rivers will be ready to meet the global world, with its very own take on London’s Hampton Court, so beloved of England’s Henry VIII!
Yes, the same Henry VIII who beheaded a number of current wives e.g. Anne Boleyn, etc. in order to move on to the next object of his roving eye and passion.
Does he remind you of anyone who just forged an exit from Punjab’s political scene? Yeah, that Prince turned into a stuffed frog, Amarinder Singh (scion of the Patiala ruling family, known for boot-licking of every, and any ruler, of Delhi after the British capture of that city in 1803), who in true Henry VIII’s inimitable style, ruled Punjab, as well as, the UT of Chandigarh in an autocratic, despotic and tyrannically self-indulgent manner, giving free rein to Punjab Police to harass women and the people, including meddling in Chandigarh (UT) affairs, where he had no right to.
The same Amarinder Singh who has now fled the country to escape the heat of a trail discovered of high-handedness, corruptness (it is rumoured that he is debt free after a stint as Chief Minister of Punjab, managing to pay off his four digits in crores debt, including vamping up Patiala to make it look like Paris, France) and, of course, the wining the dining and the womanizing. He fled to London via Dubai on a United Emirates flight, only for a rendezvous with his mashook, Asoora Alam, who also flew to Dubai and I guess they met up and flew on to London!
Yeah, the same Asoora Alam, the very same with links to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency officials. Whether, the two have married or are simply bedding each other, the over-sexed spawn of over-sexed Rulers of Patiala should not be allowed back in to the country! Seize his assets, let him spend his days in Pakistan (no one will miss him) where he has gifted a Rs. 7-crore house to his Asoora Begum, to marry whom it is rumoured
he has converted to Islam! Possible, since how else could he marry her if his legally wedded wife Preneet Kaur, the mother of his son and daughter is not divorced from him. But, that wouldn’t stop him as it didn’t when he went on to impregnate Manpreet Kaur, his mistress, who then gave birth to a son – illegitimate, of course! Make him pay the wages of arrogance, cock a snook at his high and mightiness, destroy the culture of sycophancy and neo-feudalism he ushered in Punjab politics!
Source: The Tribune
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