Barren plots sold at ‘heavenly’ prices

There's no power, water or motorable roads, but farmlands in the 50-km radius around Nagpur are being sold as a piece of heaven with dreams riding high on the international airport hub project. In the second part of this series, DNA’s Jaideep Hardikar  looks at the possible impact of the economic meltdown with hardly any project taking shape

“In the heaven’s lap,” beams the signboard erected in the middle of nowhere. It’s gold, promises the agent. “You will get double-returns if you invest here.”

Ironically, the only thing that you see here is the board amidst the wild grass and widening cracks on what was once a cotton or soybean field. Beyond this place is forest, but the agent claims those were farm houses that have been sold out!

For miles, there's no sign of life. A hillock along the layout is blissfully peaceful. In that sense, the promise is fulfilling: The place is indeed akin to a heaven! But if you want electricity, water and roads, well…the heaven here may not have any of these and chances are you might end up driving into a hell.

“It's just an investment,” reasons the agent, whose daily job is to drive tens of prospective customers in an air-conditioned Innova to his firm’s layouts - barren farmlands off the Nagpur-Wardha road that have been divided into small plots. That’s what he has been doing for the last five years, and made heaven his home! “You can sell it in six months when the prices appreciate,” he adds. And how the prices will appreciate is not his cup of tea! “They will,” he says, “automatically.”

Which means the next buyer would wait for the heaven to fall on the layout on its own, or the developer simply defines heaven according to his own wisdom. Price tag: Rs 500 per square feet! But, he adds: “for you we'll give a concession of Rs 100.”

For a plot that’s not been converted into non-agriculture use, is still under a gram panchayat and 50 km from Nagpur, it sounds far too exorbitant. But the agent is upbeat. Tens of his customers have believed in him and bought land at that price.

His USP: this place is close to MIHAN, SEZ, New Nagpur, Meghdoot, and a host of other projects that he can coin imaginatively. It sounds music to your ear. Only, all those projects are on paper, and the land being sold as 'gold mines' is actually barren agriculture land that has no sanction as layouts from revenue authorities and is under the local Gram Panchayat.