An artist’s impression of DLF’s Grand Mall coming up in Rajarhat

DLF, India’s largest real estate company, is poised to invest Rs 100,000 crore in Calcutta and Dankuni in the next seven years.

“Our second largest land bank after Karnataka is in Bengal. The integrated Dankuni township, to be spread across 4,840 acres, alone will account for Rs 50,000 crore,” A.S. Minocha, the chairman of DLF Commercial Developers Ltd, told Metro from Gurgaon.

Other projects spanning IT, residential, hospitality and retail add up to Rs 50,000 crore.

Tower I of the group’s first IT park in Rajarhat has been completed and taken up by IBM. The Rs 350-crore project has two more towers being readied, adding up to 1.3 million sq ft.

The second IT park, coming up on 25 acres in Action Area II of Rajarhat, is a Rs 700-crore project, with six towers and 2.5 million sq ft of leasable area. It is billed to be ready by end-2009. Designed by Hafeez Contractor, the park will have nearly 100,000 people working in three shifts.

DLF is also set to bring in three hotels, with a combined investment of Rs 1,000 crore. The 600-room Bypass address with Hilton will be the showpiece.

“The 6-acre property will have 480 rooms of the flagship Hilton brand, besides 120 serviced apartments,” said Vivek Bali, the general manager (marketing) of DLF Hotel Holdings Ltd. The Rs 500-crore upscale hospitality halt will also have a luxury retail wing and is expected to be completed in 30 months from ground-breaking.

DLF is also looking at a mid-rung Hilton Garden Inn, targeting the younger business traveller, besides a 600,000-sq ft business hotel on the Grand Mall campus in Rajarhat.

The Rs 130-crore mall, with a four-screen multiplex by the group-owned DT Cinemas, is expected to be ready by 2009-end. The mall, spread across 368,000 sq ft, will have a product-mix of apparel, accessories and gifts, kids’ wear, women’s wear, men’s wear, electronics, fitness, footwear, entertainment, food court and restaurant.

'We recognise some very positive changes taking place in West Bengal and the government is focused on economic growth. We want to partner the state in that growth,' said Rajeev Talwar, group executive director.

The Dankuni township, for which DLF coughed up Rs 56 lakh per acre, has been conceptualised as a 'walk-to-work' module. The group has shortlisted two US town-planner firms, who will provide three concept design solutions each in the next two months.

'We will freeze a design by this yearend and should break ground by the middle of next year. Dankuni will be one of the most modern townships in the country, complete with housing in all income segments plus hotels, hospitals, schools, colleges, lakes, malls and lots of landscaped greenery,' declared Minocha.