Noida land prices up 200 times in 20 yrs

Noida land prices up 200 times in 20 yrs
The Financial Express, June 16, 2009, Page 10

Press Trust of India, New Delhi

Property prices in Noida have skyrocketed about 200 times in the past two decades, reveals an RTI reply. Residential plots in all sectors of Noida, which were available at a price of Rs 175 per square metre in 1980, have now spiralled to Rs 39,600 per square metre in some sectors of the township, said the reply.

The highest surge has come in sectors 14, 14A, 15A, 17 and 44, the reply said. As per official records, residential land in other sectors is available in the range of Rs 14,400 per square metre and Rs 27,600 per square metre.

Exercising his right to information, an RTI activist, Lokesh Batra, has filed an application with the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida), asking it to furnish information on categories for which the authority is selling or allotting land and regarding the prices of plots as per the record.

The authority is selling land under five categories -- residential land, residential group housing, industrial land, commercial land and institutional land. There is a definite procedure for fixing and revising land allotment rates for various sectors. "For industrial and other institutional activities, land cost is subsidised. For commercial land, prices are fixed on ad hoc basis keeping in view the market rates," the reply said.

Industrial allotment rates of Noida have risen over 350 times to Rs 14,400 per square metre from Rs 40 per square metre since 1976.

Land in first, second and third phase of Noida was available at Rs 40 per square metre in 1976, which has now touched Rs 14,400 per square metre for phase I, Rs 5,550 for phase II and Rs 5,750 in phase III, the reply said.