look news india
The biggest and most revolutionary step has been taken so far in the urban planning and real estate history of Kanpur, the industrial capital of Uttar Pradesh. On the lines of the capital Lucknow, Greater Noida of Delhi-NCR and the country’s financial capital Mumbai, now Kanpur will also be developed as a modern mega-city of high-rise skyline and skyscrapers. Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) and Housing Development Council have prepared a detailed blueprint for setting up a huge satellite city under the government’s Master Plan-2031. Under this ambitious project, about 45,000 acres of land in 80 villages bordering Kanpur city and Kanpur Dehat will be acquired and land-pooling will be done. On this vast plot of land, 30 to 45 storey residential and commercial towers will be built with wide roads, multimodal connectivity and international standard amenities, which will completely reduce the pressure on the densely populated old residential areas of the city.
Kanpur has historically been a major industrial and business center of North India, but in the last few decades, the spread of the city horizontally was limited to unplanned colonies. There is an acute shortage of land in the inner areas of the city – like Sisamau, Aryanagar, Swaroop Nagar and Kakadev – and the population density has increased significantly. To find a permanent solution to this problem, the government has adopted the policy of vertical development. The proposed 45 thousand acre new city plans to increase the minimum floor area ratio (FAR) from 3.5 to 4.5, which will allow builders and developers to construct skyscrapers 30 to 50 storeys high. In this new suburb, arrangements will be made for well-planned residence of 20 to 25 lakh additional population in the next 15 years.
KDA and the administration, avoiding the old and controversial models of land acquisition, have adopted ‘Land Pooling Policy’ and the formula of agreement by mutual consent on the lines of Gujarat and Greater Noida. The identified 80 villages are mainly located in Bhaunti, Bithoor, Kalyanpur Outer, Mandhana, Chaubepur and adjoining areas of Maharajpur-Ruma belt:
-
Land acquisition with consent: Farmers will be given the option to return their developed residential/commercial plots along with compensation multiple times the circle rate.
-
Township Infrastructure: The plots returned to the farmers will be fully equipped with 18 to 30 meter wide roads, sewerage network, 24-hour water supply and underground power lines, which will increase the value of their property manifold in the market.
-
Industrial and Institutional Corridors: Of the 45 thousand acres of land, about 30% will be reserved for green belts and parks, 25% for commercial and IT parks and the remaining 45% for high-end group housing societies.
Special rules have been made to invite private and multinational real estate developers to this new high-rise in Kanpur. This new area of the city will completely meet net-zero carbon and smart city standards:
-
Premium High-Rise Societies: On the lines of Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Greater Noida’s Pari Chowk, the apartments spanning over 30 floors will have club houses, swimming pools, rooftop gardens, robotic car parking and modern security arrangements.
-
Financial and IT Hub: World-class glass-facade commercial towers will be built to attract service sector, BPO, data centers and fintech companies, so that local youth do not have to go to Noida, Gurugram or Bengaluru for jobs.
-
Huge Central Park and Water Bodies: At the heart of the project, a vast lake-front and green buffer zone will be created on the theme like Mumbai’s Marine Drive and Lucknow’s Janeshwar Mishra Park.
The biggest backbone of the success of this 45 thousand acre mega-project will be its multimodal connectivity. This entire area will lie directly at the mouth of the upcoming 63 km long access-controlled Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway (NE-6) and the proposed 93 km long Kanpur Outer Ring Road. Apart from this, there is a plan to extend the Phase II of Kanpur Metro to Mandhana and Bhaunti, so that people living here will be able to reach Kanpur Central Station or Chakeri Airport in just 20 to 25 minutes. The journey to Lucknow Amausi Airport will also be reduced to only 35 minutes through this new expressway network, due to which Lucknow-Kanpur will merge into each other as twin cities.
After this announcement, the eyes of big investors, funds and promoters of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR are fixed on Kanpur. Experts believe that the implementation of this project will attract private investment of more than ₹30,000 crore in the real estate sector of Kanpur in the next five years. The local cement, steel, brick and construction labor markets will get a huge boost, creating millions of direct and indirect jobs. According to KDA Vice President, land survey and GIS mapping work is in the final stages and physical implementation of land pooling and zonal planning will be started from the beginning of the next financial year.