By Mr. Arvind Jain, Managing Director – Pride Group
Rapid
urbanization has thrown up many complicated challenges for home owners as well
as city planners. While most of the debate tends to revolve around how to
improve living conditions in the core urban areas, real estate developers in
many cities like Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore are now coming up with an entirely
new solution – the creation of entirely new satellite mega-cities.
These
satellite cities, which are based on the integrated township model but on a
much larger scale, offer urban dwellers the possibility of living in an
environment of tailored infrastructure and with a vastly increased comfort and
convenience quotient.
The
recently launched Pride World City in Pune’s new suburb of Charholi is one of
the most prominent examples of how home buyers as well as businesses can derive
all the advantages of the main city without having to face the associated
challenges.
What
Is A Satellite City?
A
satellite city is a novel concept of urbanization - a huge planned, fully
incorporated, function-built new precinct near a bigger city. Satellite cities
serve a larger purpose than merely offering citizens a completely new
residential deal – because of their size and scope, which encompasses
everything required to make a new urban area work, they also provide a brand
new direction into which the parent city can expand and be populated.
When
a satellite city takes the shape of a mega-township, the new precinct thus
formed performs all the functions of the larger city – it offers residential
spaces, commercial spaces and retail establishments. However, unlike in the
primary city, all this development takes place in an environment wherein
infrastructure is controlled by the township developer rather than being at the
mercy of multiple municipal agencies.
Mega-townships
acting as new satellite cities are highly organized and to a very large extent
self-contained. Though they maintain all vital linkages with the parent city,
they are enclosed and controlled within their own perimeters.
Benefits
of Satellite Cities
Mega
townships conceived and developed as satellite cities rather than just large
mixed-use real estate developments significantly boost the local
economy. Not only do they create a new lifestyle for residents, but
also give rise to completely new business catchments for a city.
These
catchments offer businesses everything that they cannot get in the inner city –
tailor-made commercial spaces created to provide employees with a significantly
improved working environment, sufficient parking for everyone, assured
electricity and other vital amenities, and superlative connectivity to other
key business locations in the parent city.
Highly
Investment-Conducive Real Estate Profile
Investment
properties in satellite city-scaled mega townships offer several attractive
advantages:
·
Focused Appreciation Drivers
The
most important drivers for investment real estate are proximity to workplaces
and supportive social and civic infrastructure. In large cities, not every
property investment works consistently well because the availability of these
demand drivers are scattered and diffused over a large, unplanned terrain.
However, in a mega township working as a self-contained satellite city, these
demand drivers are available in every property invested into, because of the
advanced urban planning concepts that define these townships.
·
High Aspirational Quotients
As
inner city areas become more densely developed and populated, there is a
natural tendency for outward migration by people who cannot take the stress,
pollution and inconveniences any longer. These people naturally gravitate
towards areas and projects that offer them the relief they seek, and mega
townships are the first port of call. As such, demand from end users – and
therefore the appreciation of investment properties – is assured.
·
The Infrastructure Factor
Transport
infrastructure is one of the major challenges that eventually affect all major
cities. The movement of an ever-increasing number of people in vehicles
traveling to and from the same locations where they work in the same city will
always take its toll in the long run. Satellite cities which are located in
close vicinity to the traditional residential and commercial areas do not only
provide their own business / employment catchments along with independent
transport infrastructure, they also serve the purpose of reducing the transit
strain on the parent city.
·
Superior Lifestyle
Another
result of rapid urbanization is that more and more people are accessing the
city’s limited facilities such as hospitals, schools, shopping centres and
entertainment zones. This is the outcome of too many homeowners looking to set
up their households in inner city locations. This creates a sad and serious
paradox, caused by misleading real estate marketing based on the concept of
‘central location’, which is a standard practice among developers.
The
fact is that when a too many home buyers take the bait of ‘central location’,
the result is that these very same central locations eventually become
incapable of supporting and providing the desired lifestyle.
It
is only in satellite cities developed along advanced planned urbanization
guidelines that the desired lifestyle quotient is available. In these mega
townships, residents are no longer dependent on the shopping complexes,
offices, entertainment, education and healthcare facilities of the crowded
inner city – all these are provided independently in the new satellite city.
·
Enhanced Security
Security
is a major concern in highly urbanized cities. It is not easy to control the
security of a major city where police forces and related security agencies are
faced with a constantly increasing population. Unorganized development creates
more and more blind pockets and slum-like areas that are difficult and often
impossible to completely monitor.
In
such a scenario, mega townships represent havens of safety for their residents.
The fully centralized, highly integrated, multi-level security deployed over
the controlled perimeter of such a satellite city ensures that there are no
safety loopholes to endanger residents and businesses operating within.
·
Environmental Integrity
Increasing
environmental awareness has created a massive demand for homes in sustainable
buildings and neighbourhoods. One of the most serious outcomes of unregulated
development in highly urbanized areas is environmental degradation. This can be
brought about by a variety of factors such as excessive saturation of
fuel-burning private and public transport vehicles, poor waste management,
consumption of all available space for construction, lack of irrigation water
for the few green pockets that remain, and the presence of too many
high-voltage electricity grids and power stations.
In
a satellite city, the population and the resources to support them are at all
times controlled and scientifically balanced. This allows mega township
developers to offer an environmentally sustainable and responsive environment
in which the ill effects of transport, production, habitation and real estate
development are not allowed to overrun and overpower the innate natural balance
of the location. The result is better utilization of resources such as water
and electricity, vastly superior air quality and significantly reduces
environmental impact.
About
The Author
Arvind Jain is Managing Director of The Pride Group, a world-class property development conglomerate that is changing the cityscapes of Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore. Established in 1996, Pride Group has built and delivered over 10 million sq.ft. of constructed area. Pride Group has recently launched Pride World City, the 400-acre luxury mega-township at Charholi, Pune.
For
Media Contact
Mr.
Jay Kalghatgi
Client
Interface - Copyconnect
jaykalghatgi@gmail.com
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