Real estate boom in Bokaro. (Pankaj Singh)

Bokaro, Feb. 7: Finally, Bokaro steel city has woken to realty reality.

With two plants — a coal-bedded methane unit of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and a 3.2-million tonne capacity unit of Electrosteel Castings Limited (ECL) at Chandankyari — in the pipeline along with medical and engineering colleges, the real estate scene in Bokaro had never looked so bright.

Prices of land and residential flats in and around Bokaro steel city have shot up by more than 700 per cent in the past few years and the climb is still on. This, at a time when property rates in other parts of the country have taken a dive, thanks to economic slowdown.

The fact that the area is still largely not crowded — not too many residential apartments and houses are occupied by outsiders here as the area belongs to Bokaro steel plant except Chira Chas, Bari co-operative zone, Chas outer area and Jaina More — further explains the demand for property.

“Earlier, there was no takers of land, but the proposed ONGC and ECL plants have pushed up the property rates. Besides, new schools have opened and two medical colleges have been announced. A massive modernisation programme is underway. A mall is also coming up near Sector III, near city centre,” said well-known builder K.K Singh.

He added that one decimal of land (about 445 sqft) at Chira Chas that would have cost Rs 10,000-15,000 five years ago now came for Rs 1.50 lakh.

According to the rate chart provided by Kailash Property Ltd, Vastu Vihar Ltd and Prapti Ltd, prices of residential flats — which seven years ago cost a mere Rs 200 per sqft — now vary between Rs 900 and Rs 1,200 per sqft.

The rates of commercial plots are much higher considering an acute space crunch. The average price of land in city market area, especially Sector IV, is Rs 1,500-2,000 per sqft.

Senior executives of Kailash Construction and Prapti Construction Sunil Kumar and Ajit, respectively, said along with land and flat price, costs of construction materials and labour had also shot up.

“Good law and order situation and excellent education facilities are the USP of Bokaro. That’s why people want to live here. Besides, employees of big companies like Bokaro Steel now get well paid and are ready to invest in real estate. All these factors have sent the property price soaring,” said Kumar, who has several projects coming up at Chira Chas, Chas and other areas of the city.