Real estate developer Landmark Group on Thursday said it will invest over Rs 4,000 crore in developing 12 properties across the northern region in the next 3-4 years. “Currently our 12 projects are undergoing in North India, which will be completed in the next 3-4 years. We will be investing about one billion dollar in developing these projects,” Landmark Group Director Amit Kumar told reporters here. The company would fund the projects through internal accruals and raisings from private equities, he said. “We will try to fund our projects through our own resources, but also, we do not mind private equity players’ participation. Starting from 25 per cent, we are ready to sell up to 40 per cent to PE players in different projects,” he added. The NCR-based firm has planned to develop three hotels, two five star and one budget hotels in the next three years, which could entail an investment of about Rs 700 crore. Landmark Group is developing a 3,000-room five star hotel in Dharuhera and a budget hotel in Gurgaon with about 120 rooms. The other five star hotel would come up at Bawal in Haryana, Kumar said. “We will invest about Rs 700 crore in three hotels. Hopefully, this figure will go up as we are planning to develop two more hotels in the coming years,” he said. The company today launched an IT park in Gurgaon, spread over 15 lakh sq ft of land. The construction work would start within four months and it would be ready in three years. “The IT project, Landmark Cyber Park, would have a saleable area of about 12 lakh sq ft and it will require an investment of about Rs 350 crore,” he said.

The Noida police have arrested four people on Thursday claiming them as carjackers. Two country made pistols, four mobile phones and two cars has been seized from them. A police patrol van in night noticed these four men in Noida sector-63 and detained them to police station for interrogation. They questioned them about their presence at such an odd time in the suburb area of the city. They all were unable to answer satisfactorily to the Noida police about their presences in the area. The police detained them to the police station for further interrogation. And, in the later cross-examination process, they confessed that they all have stolen a car from Delhi last week. With the increasing crime rate in the city, the police have become more alert to control the misdeeds in the area.

The area of Noida’s prime market of sector 18 has been demolished on Wednesday to make the way for metro rail extension in the city. The authorities destroyed the Kali Charan market worth Rs.2 billion. The market is said to be illegal but the efforts to demolish it earlier go futile as the developer has taken a stay order from the Allahabad high court. With the metro rail project in the city, the Noida authorities filled the petition in the Supreme Court to encroach the land again. The market has around 500 shops which were demolished for the metro rail expansion. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is now able to move forward in the project, officials said. The apex court did not granted any grace period to the developers to file another special leave petition.

An international airport in Greater Noida will become a reality soon. Thanks to the burgeoning traffic on IGI airport, the civil aviation ministry has realized the need to construct a new structure for International airport. The ministry found that the IGI airport do not has sufficient space to handle the queues on immigration counter or in baggage check in counters. The plans of expansion are going flat in IGI airport. Therefore, the civil aviation ministry has decided to build a new international airport in Noida The Greater Noida airport will reduce the 5% passenger traffic and 8% cargo traffic from the Delhi airport. The Government has also revised the Greenfield policy; it has approved the existence of airport within the 150 kms of another airport. The policy allows the exemption from this rule on a case by case basis as Noida is under 150 kms from Delhi. The Noida city dwellers will enjoy convenience of taking flight from the nearest point from their house.

The land rates have increased by 50 – 60% in Greater Noida. The Noida authority is planning to revise the rates of residential property in Greater Noida. The dream of owning a house in Noida will may end up as a dream only, as the rates are now got almost doubled. Lalit Shrivastava, Chairman Noida and Greater Noida authority, told the pressmen that the property rates have increased by 50-60% in view of the hike in land compensation. The authority is also planning for some developmental projects, for the up coming common wealth games 2010, which requires huge investment. Residential land rates have been raised from Rs.5900 per sq m to Rs.10, 500 per sq m. this has happened just due to hike in land acquisitions. It is required to develop the villages at par with the rural areas. The rural development funds have also been raised from Rs.16 crore to Rs.55 crore.

Getting the job is becoming tough for the fresh engineering graduates. This fact is now very well known to the students. They feel themselves lucky if a company shows for the campus placement in the institutes. But even after the selection, students were asked to wait at least for next six months or for a year. A student of Noida based engineering institute said, “I have received the offer letter from the IT company but the joining date mentioned on it is after a six months”. Students in tire –II cities like Noida and Gurgaon have been affected the most by this attitude of the IT companies. A placement office in a Greater Noida based engineering institute told that many IT companies are going slow on placement this year. Only a few percent of the students have got the placement this year. However, the selection procedure is still going on. It is happening only due to the slow down in the US, which is affecting the Indian IT industry as well.

From the day of inauguration the Noida expressway has claimed 45 lives and 60 serious accidents on the road. The increased rate of accidents has raised the eyebrows of the authorities to take some protective steps to control the accidents. The main reason found for the accidents is the trucks and tractors parked on the road side and the low dividers. Any car or vehicle can easily change the lane to the other side of the road which ultimately causes the collision.

The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) found in an audit that most of the PF accounts of the employees are inaccurately reconciled. The study shows 90% of the accounts in the north zone of the country are inaccurate. Some of the employees can bet on their accounts that they are imperfect in the areas of Noida (98.26%), Gurgaon (96.05%), Chandigarh (96%) and Bhopal (93.3%).

The member of planning commission B K Chaturvedi argues that UP needs to improve the governance to attract the investors from the country. However, the planning commission has approved the Noida-Balia Ganga Expressway and also examining the proposal for International airport at Noida. But, the planning commission feels that state can grow much faster by adopting human resource based economic development program.

The Noida police have arrested four men planning to rob the cash van of a branch of ICICI bank in Sector-61 in Noida. The culprits were studying the movements of the cash van from past one week. They all are identified as Amit Singh, Sandeep Tomar, Sanjay and Deepak Tomar from Baghpat, Badhaut and Muzzafarnagar area.