Two of the leading developers in the South — the Bangalore-based Prestige Group and the Chennai-based Rattha Group — are to jointly develop a 25-acre residential project in Chennai. The project, Prestige Bella Vista, is also Prestige's first major residential development in Chennai, after it entered the market with a series of commercial projects. Bella Vista will offer 2,613 apartments of one-to-four Bedroom-Hall-Kitchen units at an initial base price of approximately Rs 4,200 a square foot. The project at Porur, a suburb to the west of Chennai, is to be completed during the next three years, according to Mr Irfan Razack, Chairman and Managing Director, Prestige Group. Addressing the launch of the project, he said work on the project is set to commence in mid-February. The location is ideal in terms of being in a major developing area with easy access to the important IT and manufacturing hubs, entertainment, healthcare and social infrastructure, and connectivity to some other parts of the city.

Bella Vista will have open areas of approximately 19.5 acres, and a range of modern amenities, including a 52,000 square-foot club house. Prestige, which has developed IT space and an office building in Chennai, and is in the process of setting up one of the city's largest plazas and multiplexes to be completed by the year-end, has now entered the residential market in the city. One more residential project is being planned jointly with the Rattha group, a high-end villa project at Sholinganallur, to the south of Chennai. The Rattha Group is a leading developer of commercial space and hospitality projects, and is familiar with the Chennai market, he said. Mr Harbinder Singh Rattha, Vice-Chairman, Rattha Group, said the group had decided to go in for the joint venture because of Prestige's expertise in residential development. More such joint developments are in the offing, including one with another major developer, Sobha Developers of Bangalore.

NABARD's scheme for warehousing

The National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) is to implement a refinance scheme to boost investments in warehousing. The refinance scheme will encourage banks to accelerate the pace of creation of quality warehousing facilities for agricultural commodities. The scheme was conceptualised out of a dedicated fund of Rs 2,000 crore, allocated in the Union Budget. The scheme will help create around nine million tonnes of additional storage capacity.

Under this scheme, NABARD will extend refinance to commercial banks, regional rural banks and co-operative banks, against the loans for construction of warehousing infrastructure for agricultural commodities. NABARD will charge interest on refinance at 8 per cent per annum, while interest on the loans to the borrowers would be decided by the banks as per their existing policies. NABARD will extend an interest rebate of 1.5 per cent to those borrowers, who repay their loans, along with interest, as per the repayment schedule prescribed by the financing bank. Interest rate rebate will be provided by NABARD, once the bank certifies timely repayment by the borrower. NABARD will assist the banks in onsite and offsite monitoring of the projects, to ensure timely completion and availability of the additional warehousing facility to farmers.

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