Royal city’s neighbour feels the pinch

Aman Sood

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Although it is the first city of Punjab that falls just across the National Highway, Rajpura’s real estate market has failed to encash its locational advantage over the years. The overall slowdown in Punjab had further aggravated the realty crisis in this city that is an important rail head as well as home to a number of industries including  national level cycle-manufacturing factory and a thermal plant in the area. 

Massive corruption in the local Municipal Committee that allowed mushrooming of illegal colonies and the active connivance of the police at the local level has made investors reluctant to buy any property here. “The only buyers in the market are the ones who genuinely need the property for personal use and not investors”, says Singh property owner, Kaldeep Singh.

However, the situation remained grim for the property market here. Illegal colonies have been the key reason for slump in the market here. In fact, according to sources a major portion of Rajpura-Chandigarh Road and Rajpura-Patiala Road is also unapproved. 

Sarbjit Singh of Rajpura Properties, said illegal colonies were mushrooming without any check within the municipal limits of the Rajpura and this had led to haphazard urban housing development. “Several unapproved colonies are selling plots for as low as Rs 700 per square yard and in many cases the buyers are duped by greedy owners, following which the police steps in. later the developer and the police ensure that the buyer is ‘fixed’ and thus the nexus has caused ample losses to people like us and genuine investors who are afraid”, he says.

Records accessed revealed that the police stations in the town have thousands of complaints regarding property disputes “with developers getting off the hook at the police station level and only in few cases their cases reach the court”. 

Residential and commercial both feel the heat

When one of the largest engineering companies — Larsen & Toubro Ltd started the setting up of the 1400-MW Thermal Power Project in Rajpura, some years back, it was expected that the real estate activity on the Rajpura-Chandigarh and Rajpura-Patiala road will gain momentum and land prices in both these areas will go up. The realtors were expecting that the thermal plant project and the proposed master plan for Rajpura would not only bring physical infrastructure to Rajpura, but would also make the real estate sector flourish.

But the effect of this project has been adverse on thr real estate growth in the city. “The property rates have  gone down due to this plant. Agricultural land rates that were around Rs 70 lakh per acre are now just around Rs 25 lakh per acre”, said Angrej Singh, one of oldest property dealers on this stretch. “Despite excellent investment destination because of proximity to Chandigarh, the real estate sector here is experiencing recession”, he added.

The main Patiala-Chandigarh road has some good showrooms in Rajpura that were earlier (2005-07) available for Rs 80,000 per square yard, but despite demand the owners are unable to sell them at the same rates. “These are now available for sale at Rs 60,000 per square yard”, claims Sarbjit Singh.

Election time

This being an election year has also not helped the real estate fortunes as the buyers as well as sellers are both in a wait-and-watch mode while the government schemes are also on a hold for sometime now. “ The overall market trend is down due to the growing anti-incumbency against the government and the only hope is that the state gets a Congress government and market sees some buyers”, says Angrez Singh. Those operating in the real estate market in the state claim that Congress rule is generally good for the sector with good price appreciation and better sales. “In the past nine years I have sold only 36 plots, as compared to the 178 that I sold during the five-year Congress regime”, adds Angrez Singh.

 Encroachments a cause of concern

The whole town of Rajpura and almost all main roads faces a big problem of encroachments. So much so that the ‘monthly charge’ of the Municipal Committee is fixed and the hawkers have a field day. “Despite recent court directions, the authorities have turned a blind eye to the menace, causing ample losses to the genuine shopkeepers, who feel helpless”, says Karamjit Singh, a local resident. 

“I have a shop to sell shirts and trousers for which I am paying a rent of Rs 15,000 per month, however a hawker sells the same just a few meters away from his illegal kiosk by paying Rs 2,000 a month to the local authorities. In these circumstances, who would want to buy or invest in property in this town”, he says.

Master Plan

Rajpura is an important sub-division of Patiala district and its location is very ideal as two national highways cross through it. Rajpura acts as mid-point between Amritsar and Delhi and is the first railway junction of Punjab and Delhi — the Amritsar Railway Line. Recognising the need for regulating the development of Rajpura, the Punjab Government had declared a Local Planning Area Rajpura (LPA Rajpura) in December 2007. 

Chief Town Planner,Punjab, was designated as the Planning Agency to prepare the master plan of LPA Rajpura. LPA Rajpura comprises 166 villages and the master plan was drafted in a manner that all sections of society, including the public sector, private economic sector and the social sector had a fair representation.

The main aim was to develop industry, trade and commerce in Rajpura by striking a balance in the distribution of pre-dominant land uses with enhanced connectivity through road, rail and freight corridor in an environmentally sustainable manner. The draft master plan was prepared and objections were heard. In the master plan, the land-use zones had been proposed for LPA Rajpura residential zone, the commercial zone, wholesale and warehousing zone, industrial zone, logistic zone (corridor), mixed-land-use zone and rural and agricultural zone. An extensive road network has also been proposed for the master plan of LPA Rajpura.