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RENTS NEAR ELLIOTS BEACH go through the roof

Area Currently Booming With Business Activity,Has More Than 40 Eateries And Clothes Outlets

Jayaraj Sivan | TNN

Rapid changes are turning Besant Nagar,once a quiet residential locality,and Elliots Beach,Chennais cleanest seafront,into a commercial hub.
The transformation started around 10 years ago,when people started looking at Elliots Beach as an alternative to Marina for an evening saunter.But things hit overdrive around two years ago,says builder Ceebros managing director C Subba Reddy.
After the success of some early birds,many residents on the beach road have converted their houses into commercial spaces.Most of them are either half-a-ground or one ground (2,400 sqft) plots.Since the locality does not provide scope for large scale redevelopment,theres nothing to stop the change, Reddy says.
Lakshmikanth,who runs a snack store next door,says he paid 150 per sqft when he took the shop on rent four years ago,but the landlord has now hiked it to 200.There is a hike of almost 10% every year.But as long as I make my profit,I have no complaints.I get 1,500 customers a day on weekend and on holidays, he says.
Rents near Elliots Beach have almost doubled in the past three years but they are still much lower than rents for commercial space in T Nagar or Purasaiwakkam,which can be as high as Rs 500 per sqft,says Jayant Hemdev,business director at Hemdevs,a Chennaibased realty firm.Rents rose gradually in Besant Nagar till 2009, he says.Near Elliots Beach,rents are in the range of 125 to 140 per sqft,for the ground floor.It drops to almost half if the space is on the first floor.
Wilson Mathews,director,sales and marketing at TVH,a citybased builder,said Elliots Beach used to attract residents of the more affluent areas in the city,like RA Puram,Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur,till a few years ago.They used to gather there as it provided large lung space for a calm morning or evening walk, he says.
Elliots Beach has many attractions.It is a large open area that offers shopping options and lots of parking space,a prerequisite for any retail hub.There was one dhaba on the beach road in the 90s,but many multicuisine and speciality restaurants,medical shops,ice cream parlours,ATMs and spas have opened on the thoroughfare since then.
But Hemdev cautions against flowing with the tide and says one needs a good business plan.There is a tendency for people to copy others.In the process,if they end up opening only coffee shops or restaurants,it will be bad for business, he says.The Besant Nagar Residents Welfare Association should perhaps step in and regulate the change by earmarking areas for each business vertical.Perhaps it can ensure that all buildings have similar signage too.
jayaraj.sivan@timesgroup.com

MULTI-BIZ HUB: Many speciality restaurants,medical shops,ice cream parlours,ATMs and spas have opened on Besant Nagar since the 1990s

Seafront draws weekend shoppers

Pratiksha Ramkumar | TNN

Kavitha Ganesh,a resident of Adyar,remembers listening to the sound of waves lashing the shore and seeing the sea as she relaxed with a soft drink at Cozee after her walk every evening.
Ten years on,she takes her walk in the morning because,after 5pm,she only sees cars,bikes and huge crowds.Back then,only Cozee and two other eateries were on the beach front,with two or three garment stores.People gathered only on weekends, she said.
The beach front is fast becoming South Chennais Khader Nawaz Khan Road.There are more than 22 permanent eateries,10 clothing stores,two spas,three salons,electronic stores and even a foreign exchange outlet.It is fast becoming a popular multi-business hub.A well-maintained beach is the perfect place to do business as it attracts a large number of customers.It gives you a great view and there is a massive floating population, says Soundariya,who launched Thai Sabai,a spa,four months ago.
Despite the beach seeing a turnout of more than 10,000 people during weekend evenings,business establishments besides eateries and garment stores depend on local residents for the major chunk of their business.Residents make the majority of our spa clientele here, says Soundariya.The floating population usually just steps in for salon services like hair cuts, she adds.Unlike most tourist destinations,many residents of the area are also the beachs patrons,so many who come for a stroll also walk into stores,check prices and then return if they like something, says a sales representative at Camera Citi.We dont need the floating population because we see regular business all day.
Being on the beach front is also a smart marketing move,because the establishment gets noticed by nearly 40,000 people every week.It encourages word of mouth publicity, says Shan T,who runs Tantra,a tattoo parlour.I pay 200 per sqft,but Elliots beach is the heart of the city for youngsters.So,I save on newspaper advertisements, he adds.
However,for those in the food business,Elliots beach is a prime locality because of the floating population.The number of eateries has gone up more than three times over the last seven years,says Navjot Singh,who runs Cozee,a multi-cuisine restaurant that has existed on the beach since 1984.

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BUMPY RIDE
Road which gobbled 491cr in bad shape

Christin Mathew Philip TNN

Chennai: The Chennai-Tirupati High Road,a national highway,is in a terrible shape,say those who travel on it.In reply to an RTI petition filed by consumer activist T Sadagopan,the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said it spent 491.20 crore on the road since 2005,but commuters disagree.
Large portions of the stretch are full of potholes and we have been suffering for long, says Sadagopan,who regularly travels on the Padi-Thiruninravur section of the road.
Officials of the NHAI,which took over the 132.60-km road in 2005 from the state highways department and named it NH205,plan to hand it back.
The widening and four-laning of the road began in April 2011 and 45 lakh was spent for maintenance of the 21km Padi-Thiruninravur stretch,the RTI reply said.A regular commuter on the Padi-Thiruninravur stretch will know very little money has been spent, says Sadagopan.
NHAI chief general manager I G Reddy said,The poor condition of the road is because of the improper drainage system.Rain water always stagnates in pools on the stretch.
Commuters say the road has became a deadly spot,with protruding stones on several stretches and heavy traffic creating problems.Roy Rozario of Pattabhiram,who is general secretary of Peoples Voice,said the NHAI had done little to remove encroachments.Its difficult to use this stretch because of the dust and potholes.
Others say there has been no improvement despite complaints.There are several overcrowded share-autos plying on this stretch.Because of bumpy stretches,there are chances of people falling off autos.Several minor accidents occur regulalrly, said Nalini Shankar,a commuter.
V Prakash of Ambattur said: The road is particularly bad shape from Padi to Avadi,with numerous potholes.The traffic has increased so much,but road looks like what it was 30 years ago.It is a nightmare to drive in the rain and at night.
mp.christin@timesgroup.com

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Court asks govt to return prime land bought 52 yrs ago

A Subramani TNN

Chennai: The Madras high court asked the Tamil Nadu government to re-convey a piece of land opposite the Raj Bhavan measuring 1.62 acres and worth at least 150 crore 52 years after it was acquired for a public purpose.
JusticeKNBasha,passing an order on thewrit petition of five legal heirs of the land owners,directed the government to hand over the land in 12 weeks after receiving the original compensation amount.The government,however,has preferred a review petition and it is pending.
It was in August 1960 that the state government initiated the acquisition of the property on Sardar PatelRoad for a public purpose of constructing a hostel and buildings for the Central Cooperative Institute.The lands original owners Manali Ramakrishna Mudaliar and Manali Parthasarathy Mudaliar received compensation of 33,947.They died in May 1999 and April 2002.
In 2006,their five legal heirs filed a writ petition asking for the re-conveyance of the property,as the lands had not been utilised for the purpose for which it had been acquired.It was after filing of the writ petition that the government came to know about the property,and realised that it had been handed over to the highways department and that an association of highway department engineers had been occupying the land.
Though the high court asked the government to consider the representation of the legal heirs,this was rejected in 2007,on the grounds that the property was in the governments possession for more than 40 years.After another round of litigation,the government gave them a hearing and passed a fresh order in 2008 holding that the acquired land could not be used due to financial constraints and that steps had been taken to retrieveitfrom thehighwaysdepartment.
Syed Mustafa,counsel for theheirs,saidthelandhad not been used for the original purpose for 47 years and that it had been encroached.Additional advocate-general S Gomathynayagam countered by saying the writ by legal heirs could notbe maintained asthe original owners had received compensation.
Justice Basha,holding that the legal heirs could seek re-conveyance of the land under Section 48-B of the Land Acquisition Act,said : The subject land has not been utilized for the specific purpose for which it was acquired.The cooperative department and the Chennai district collector have not raised their little finger by taking any action to utilize the land for any other public purpose,at least.
It is to be reiterated that only in 2006,that too after the petitioners filed the petition,the Mambalam-Guindy tahsildar suddenly woke up and inspected the land and found pucca buildingserectedby the Association of Highways Engineers and the highways department.The authorities have not produced any material or any scrap of document to show as to how the said land was occupied by the highways department, he said.

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Village in Alandur gets a park with help of court

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: After more than four yearsof struggle,residentsofTiruneermalai village in Alandur are all set to get a park of their own,thanks to the intervention of theMadrashighcourt.
Chandran Nagar in Tiruneermalai has five streets and several cross-streets and more than 200 houses that were built after obtaining the CMDA permission.Even at the time of developing the locality,residents donated 13 vacant plots measuring more than 23,600 sqft for a parkin the area.Voluntarily earmarking the space,donating the land and even paying necessary fees were not enough,as the local body never created a park on the gifted place.In 2009 the residents moved the high court which asked the authorities to consider their representation and pass orders.In June 2012 though it allocated funds,park was not built,forcing another roundof litigation.
Now,the first bench of the court has made it clear that the land should not be used for any other purpose,as a resolution to build a park had already been adopted.

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Citizens solve civic woes themselves

OMR residents go on trash-busting drives

Kamini Mathai TNN

Chennai: For nine months,GV Krishnan,a resident of Mantri Synergy in Padur,watched as a heap of garbage piled up outside the gate of his apartment complex.People would walk past it,dump garbage,it was as if they could not even see the garbage spilling over, says Krishnan.
Four months ago,Krishnan decided he had enough,then he and a few of his neighbours cleared the heap themselves.And that was how OMR Greens was formed, says group co-founder Gopalan Ramanujam,a retired bank manager.At least two Sundays a month since September 2012,the OMR Greens group has been going on trash-busting drives as they call it,all over Padur and Kelambakkam and are now looking at expanding to other parts of Old Mahabalipuram Road.To add visibility to their activities the group has a blog,a Facebook page and YouTube postings of their outings.
I have been living in Padur for 18 months, says Ramanujam.The place is like a village where there has been a sudden spurt in infrastructure with so many apartments coming up.We realised there is no point in waiting for the government.We wanted to do our bit, he adds.
While OMR Greens began with just Mantri residents,it has now grown to include residents from other apartment complexes,local store owners,autorickshaw drivers,students from nearby colleges as well as members of the areas panchayats.
B Kumar,for instance,who owns Saravana Medicals,on OMR,has been on two of the garbage drives apart from supplying gloves and masks at cost price to people in the group.I heard about the group when they came to buy gloves and masks from me.I supply it to them as well as go along on the drives, says Kumar.And adds,I have been here for a long time.It is good that someone is finally trying to clean up the place.
C Geetha Devi,an assistant professor in the electrical engineering department of Hindustan University,also joined the group along with her students.In our college we have a Clean Padur,Clean OMR campaign.So we make it a point to group with OMR Greens, says Devi.

Paving a model road in a Nolambur neighbourhood

Priya Menon TNN

Chennai: When residents of Nolambur moved into the area in 2007,they found there was no proper road connecting their apartments to the main road.After years of pleading with authorities in vain,they took it upon themselves to lay the road.
Since the road was under a lot of litigation,Panchayat authorities wouldnt take any steps, says G Suresh,president,Federation of Nolambur Residents Associations (FONRA).So residents decided to pool in resources.Seven associations contributed about 70,000, says Suresh.The Sri Ram Nagar Main Road,the only route connecting apartment complexes to the main road,in West Mogappair,was laid in October 2011.
Several residents associations across the city,and especially in the suburbs,are now taking the initiative to address civic problems in their neighbourhood whether it is laying roads or clearing garbage.
Experts feel the public needs to play a role in addressing civic issues.Exnora International,for instance,conducts capacity building programmes for residents welfare associations.While the government plays one role,we play another.For instance,to aid garbage clearance,people can see to it that is segregated at source, says M B Nirmal,founder Exnora
Over the years,Exnora has undertaken many initiatives.Ten years,ago,the Giriappa Road slum in T Nagar didnt have drainage, says Nirmal.The huts had a small septic tank where waste water was collected.Residents would collect it in buckets and pour into the underground sewage system.Seeing their plight,we thought of giving them underground drainage but had to take into account the cost of pipes,sand and cement as well as the cost of labour, he says.While Rotary and Lions clubs helped with former,people in the slum pitched in with the labour.They connected the septic tank to a pipeline that was connected to the corporation sewer, says Nirmal.
Chennai Corporation officials say residents are welcome to participate in garbage collecting activities.That is the very essence of a democratic corporation that is meant to work for the people, said a senior elected representative of the corporation council.
However,residents are not allowed to lay their own roads without the civic bodys permission.They can only lay private roads or certain access roads with our permission and supervision only, he added.

OMR Greens now include residents from other apartment complexes,local store owners,autorickshaw drivers,students

Slum dwellers in T Nagar constructed an underground sewage system with the help of Exnora

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3.36cr for Broadway bus stand after courts damning report

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Proddedby theMadras high court,the Chennai Corporation has decided to spend 3.36 crore on the encroachment-ridden Broadway bus stand,which does nothave proper roads andtoilets for passengers.
It was on January 4 that the first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao andJusticeA runa Jagadeesan appointed an advocate-commissioner to visit the bus stand,inspect the facilities and submit a report.Theorder was passedon a public interest writ petition filed by social activist Traffic Ramasamy,who had alleged that encroachers,dumped garbage and toilet stench left little space for several thousand passengers using the bus stand.
Advocate Karthikeyan made a spot-study on January 5 andfiled a reportstating that the ladies toilets at the bus stand did not have doors and it was apparent that the area had been recently cleared of garbage.The bus stand is filled with hawkers and does not have proper roads,the report said.
There is a public convenience.But there was no door at the entrance of the ladies toilet,and the toilets were unclean.There was no water,except a tub with water placed at the entrance.Despite the poor stateof thefacility a person was collecting charges for using the convenience, the report said.
Vendors had setup shops till the very end of the northern entrance on NSC Bose Road,it said,adding that accumulatedwastewaslying in front of the shops.The bus shelter was in disrepair,the report said,adding that there were neither seating facilities nor drinking water for passengers.
Responding to the damning report,the Chennai Corporation filed a counter saying 3.36 crore had been allotted for carrying out developmental work at the bus stand and tenders for concrete road works inside the premises had been floated.The judges,recording submissions of the corporation,kept the PIL pending and adjourned the hearing after four weeks for further proceedings.

The ladies toilet at the Broadway bus stand does not have doors

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HC puts on hold all land grab cases

Restrains Police From Filing Chargesheet,Special Courts From Holding Trial

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Five months after restraining the state police from filing chargesheet in land grab cases before the specially formed courts in Coimbatore andTirupur,the Madras high court has now expanded the order further and said no chargesheet should be filed in any of the special courts in the state.If chargesheet has already been filed,no trial should be held,the court said.
The government issued an order on August 11,2011 for setting up 25 special magistrate courts exclusively to try land grab cases.
A division bench of the Madras high court comprising Justice K N Basha and Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar gave the interim ruling on Monday after senior advocate P Wilson,representing petitioner P Ganesan of Anna Nagar,pointed out that despite the court orders more special courts were being constituted by the government.
The bench is hearing a batch of petitions filed by several persons,including former DMK minister Veerapandi S Arumugam,who passed away recently,highlighting various lacunae in the law governing special courts.
In their order,the judges pointed out that Wilson had filed a memo referring to the inauguration of more number of special courts in Tamil Nadu,despite the July 13,2012order restraining the authorities from filing any chargesheet before the two new courts at Tirupur and Coimbatore.
P Wilson,advocate for the petitioner,filed a fresh memo to the effect that subsequent to the orders passed by this court on July 13 some more special courts had been inaugurated in places like Tirunelveli,Ramanathapuram,Theni and Villupuram,and there is further proposal to open similar special courts in other districts too, the bench said.
Referring to their July 13 order,the judges said,We are inclined to pass an order in the light of the earlier order that status quo as on today shall be maintained in filing chargesheet before the special courts for land grab cases. The judges also asked the registry to circulate the order to all the special courts for land grab cases.
One of the anomalies pointed out by Ganesan was that it was illegal to restrict the scope of the legislation to cover the land grab offences committed during a particular regime between 2006 and 2011.
It is discriminatory to limit the illegality of an offence to a particular period or group,he said.As some of the charges registered by police carry more than three years of imprisonment,only a chief judicial /chief metropolitan magistrate,and not these special magistrate courts,could deliver the judgment,he said.

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Files go missing;corpn clueless on land it owns

Pratiksha Ramkumar TNN

Chennai: Corporation of Chennaiisin thedark.
While thats not new,this time its about land it owns in thecity worthcroresof rupees.The cash-strapped civic body cannotfailtoutilisethese properties to the full extent of their value,let alone lose count of them completely which is precisely what corporation officialshave achieved.
Between the maze that is the corporation headquarters at Ripon Buildings and zonal offices,dozens of files with detailsof location and monetary value of its open space reserve (OSR ) land have mysteriously gone missing.
Mayor Saidai Duraisamy has come up with an idea to solve the problem.He has asked the corporation council secretariat to enumerate all OSR land that is set aside and handedover tothecivicbody to provide public amenities like parks and rest rooms.
Several people had used RTI petitions for information on OSR land and received evasive replies from corporation officials.The mayor decidedhe would ask for the data himself when the corporations parks department,during a drive against encroachments,was askedfor detailson OSRspaces and admitted that it did not have any records.
The mayor finally gave up on corporation officials and turned his attention to the council secretariat.This has caused much consternation to council members,who say they have nodata on OSRland.Allthecorporationslandholdings are supposed to be managedby the parks andland and estatesdepartments.
Last January,the mayor asked corporation officials for alistof OSRspaces, said an official from the mayors office.But he did not receive a reply even by December.
The mayor now wants to make a fresh list of OSR properties.Sinceevery pieceofOSR land accepted by the corporation has to be approved by a council resolution,Duraisamy askedthesecretariatfor copies of all resolutions on OSR land over the past 50 years.The mayor plans to get a list with addresses and guideline value and then inspect the properties, theofficialsaid.
The corporation recently re-acquired two large pieces of land in Kotturpuram and Saidapet that were handed over to the civic body but later got stuck in legal wrangles after peoplelaidclaim tothem.
In October,ChennaiCorporation re-acquired a 32-ground plot in Saidapet worth Rs 45 crore.The land was acquired by the civic body to set up a school,but the original owner went to court and sold it while the ownership was being contested in court.The corporation retrieved the land after striking a compromise with the newowner.
The parks department,however,continues to claim it has no data of OSR land that it issupposedto manage.
The council secretariat is now searching its offices for OSRdocuments,a corporation officialsaid.

An OSR property in Ayanavaram which was re-acquired

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Engg college chairman arrested for land grab

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The Kancheepuram police on Tuesday arrested the chairman of an engineering college and launched a hunt for one of his associates in connection with the illegal takeover of land in Chennai from a man who recently retired from a private company.
A team of policemen from the anti-land grab cell apprehended K Moosa,74,chairman of Dhaanish Ahmed Engineering College and a resident of Anna Nagar,while he was out on a morning stroll.Kancheepuram superintendent of police Xavier Dhanraj confirmed the arrest.He said Moosa was accused of cheating and threatening G Gajapathy,60,a resident of Moolakadai near Perambur.
In his complaint,Gajapathy said he owned four grounds (around 9,600 sqft) at Velleri Thangal near Otteri in Sriperumbudur.He bought the land in 1999.When he visited the site recently,Gajapathy said,he was shocked to find that Dhaanish Ahmed Engineering College had encroached on his land.When he met the college officials and sought an explanation,he was threatened with dire consequences if he pursued the case.Gajapathy told police he later approached revenue officials and they confirmed that the college officials had expanded the campus by taking over his property.
An investigating officer said police have received at least six more complaints of land grab against officials of the college.We are investigating the other complaints as well, he said.Police produced Moosa before a magistrates court in Tambaram on Tuesday evening and he was remanded in judicial custody.

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Architects,surveyors to be held responsible for bldg violations

Julie Mariappan TNN

Chennai: Architects and licensed surveyors who supervise construction of buildings and certify that they conform to norms will be hereafter held responsible for building violations.Necessary amendments will be made in the Town and Country Planning Act to facilitate this,said sources.
The move is aimed at strengthening the enforcement mechanism of the regulatory bodies,the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP),to crack down on unauthorised constructions.Hitherto,licensed surveyors and architects used to sign the applications for building plan approval and they were not held responsible for the actual construction.
The amendment will be carried out shortly, said an official.The government has also decided to make it mandatory for architects and licensed surveyors to get themselves registered with the CMDA/ DTCP.If they are found to be at fault,their licences would be cancelled and penalties imposed on them,said the official.
Often,builders and individual promoters initially construct as per the plan submitted and after getting completion certificates for the buildings,indulge in violations by constructing additional floors.Every local body has a group of registered surveyors to analyze building plans prepared by architects.They certify plans seeking construction of low-rise ordinary buildings (ground+first floor),based on which local bodies issue building permits.
The CMDA and DTCP issue plan permits for special buildings (ground+3 floors or stilt+four floors) and multistoreyed buildings,upon certification from architects and licensed surveyors.However,with a staff crunch affecting enforcement measures,the government decided to fix responsibility on other stakeholders as well,sources said.The proposal was mooted by the Madras high court-appointed monitoring panel,set up to look into issues of unauthorized constructions.
The committee was unhappy with the mushrooming of unauthorised constructions,despite directions to set up special teams to check building violations.The observations of the committee had the enforcement agencies on their toes and helped seal nearly 60 buildings in Chennai since 2008.
However,a leading architect,preferring anonymity,said,We are ready to inform the regulatory bodies if there are building violations.But holding us responsible for such violations is wrong.
julie.mariappan@timesgroup.com

TOUGH ACTION: A file picture of authorities sealing an unauthorised building at T Nagar

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Office space absorption falls in 2012

Jayaraj Sivan, TNN Jan 12, 2013, 04.15AM IST

CHENNAI: The global economic slowdown has given the infotech and realty sectors a bad bruising.

Corporates reviewing expansion plans and focussing on improving space utilization to cut costs has played a major role in a 26% average fall in prime office space absorption in key markets across the country in 2012, according to a report by international realty consultant CBRE.

Between 2010 and 2011, by contrast, the country recorded a 10% increase in office space absorption.

The report said companies took only 26 million sqft on lease last year, a big fall from the 35 million sqft in 2011. Companies took around 7 million sqft of office space from October to December last year, 1 million sqft more than in the previous quarter.

Key markets like the National Capital Region, Mumbai and Bangalore dominated the market, accounting for nearly 70% of office space taken on lease, the report said.

Commenting on the findings, CBRE South Asia managing director Anshuman Magazine said the decline was primarily due to the continuing economic uncertainty in global and domestic markets. "This has acted as a deterrent and many corporates have deferred expansion plans," he said. "For any revival, the government has to fast track economic reforms and the global economy has to show some improvement."

One of the reasons for the late surge last year was that the bulk of office space, around 10 million sqft, became available only in the last quarter of 2012 because of delays in completion of projects.

Around 75% of that was contributed by the NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore. Roughly 60% of the total space taken had been leased to IT parks and special economic zones.

Only about 5 million sqft of office space was ready to be rented out across the country in the third quarter of 2012.

A total of 31 million sqft of premium office space was available last year, a huge drop from the 55 million sqft in 2010. A large chunk of the space that was scheduled to be ready last year will only be ready this year, the report said.

However, rental values remained largely stable across most micro markets. But the report has projected a downward trend in rents in most markets in the country in the short and medium term.

SLOWDOWN EFFECT
Office space absorption falls 26% in key markets

Jayaraj Sivan

Chennai: The global economic slowdown has given the infotech and realty sectors a bad bruising.
Corporates reviewing expansion plans and focussing on improving space utilization to cut costs has played a major role in a 26% average fall in prime office space absorption in key markets across the country in 2012,according to a report by international realty consultant CBRE.
Between 2010 and 2011,by contrast,the country recorded a 10% increase in office space absorption.
The report said companies took only 26 million sqft on lease last year,a big fall from the 35 million sqft in 2011.Companies took around 7 million sqft of office space from October to December last year,1 million sqft more than in the previous quarter.
Key markets like the National Capital Region,Mumbai and Bangalore dominated the market,accounting for nearly 70% of office space taken on lease,the report said.
Commenting on the findings,CBRE South Asia managing director Anshuman Magazine said the decline was primarily due to the continuing economic uncertainty in global and domestic markets.This has acted as a deterrent and many corporates have deferred expansion plans, he said.For any revival,the government has to fast track economic reforms and the global economy has to show some improvement.
One of the reasons for the late surge last year was that the bulk of office space,around 10 million sqft,became available only in the last quarter of 2012 because of delays in completion of projects.
Around 75% of that was contributed by the NCR,Mumbai and Bangalore.Roughly 60% of the total space taken had been leased to IT parks and special economic zones.
Only about 5 million sqft of office space was ready to be rented out across the country in the third quarter of 2012.A total of 31 million sqft of premium office space was available last year,a huge drop from the 55 million sqft in 2010.A large chunk of the space that was scheduled to be ready last year will only be ready this year,the report said.

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