Month: December 2021

The ground work ahead of soil testing for the much-awaited Joka-Esplanade Metro has started in the Maidan area. This is a milestone for the Metro corridor that has been saddled with several missed deadlines even as it was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had flagged off the project in July 2011 and planned it when she was the railway minister in 2009-10. Finally, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency of the 15km Joka-Esplanade Metro or Kolkata’s Line 3, has started the process of soil testing, after getting a go-ahead from the Army, custodian of the land in and around the Maidan area.

The Metro corridor is elevated from Joka to Mominpore. But a 5.6km stretch from Mominpore till Esplanade will be underground. Five stations — Mominpore, Kidderpore, Victoria Memorial, Park Street and Esplanade — will come up along this stretch. A soil testing survey by geotechnical engineers is mandatory before deploying Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) to build the underground section. The crucial test is supposed to check the soil condition and other parameters and depending on the results, the further course of work will be planned. The soil test will also study the erosion aspect and other characteristics before the TBMs can be pressed in to dig and burrow the twin tunnels as part of the Joka-Esplanade Metro link.

Usually, a series of boreholes, each of at least 15m diameter, is drilled after certain gaps. Normally, a boring rig with an auger (drilling device) drills a borehole and a tube is driven in to collect samples, which are tested for several parameters like density, strength and resistance.

But in the case of this Metro work, the locality is Maidan, so soil samples may not be collected from the boreholes to map the strata along the alignment. Instead, a superior technology will be used to detect remotely the topography and related specifications without affecting the Maidan grounds.

A senior RVNL official said, “We are trying to use a hi-tech method so that the testing can be conducted in various locations of the proposed route without inflicting any harm on the Maidan, which is an eco-sensitive zone.”

Areas on the Maidan have been barricaded for preliminary work ahead of the main soil testing exercise. RVNL is taking an extra care to get the job done following all green rules and guidelines relating to the Maidan. Over the past few months, the agency has been conducting meetings with the Army, so issues relating to the Metro project could be ironed out and the construction could be underway.
The Metro project approved in 2010 can so far be executed till Mominpore. Beyond Mominpore, the land belongs to Army,” said a railway official. Currently, the project is chasing a mid-2022 deadline to commission the 8.5km Joka-Taratala section.

The residential property registrations in greater Kolkata in the 11-month period of 2021 stood at 40,972 units, a 79% increase in residential properties being registered on a year on year basis, as the West Bengal government has decided to levy stamp duty at the reduced rate until the end of the year.  The 2% stamp duty rebate has worked wonders for Kolkata residential real estate sector in the second half of the year and provided momentum to the residential sales with more than half (51%) of these units registered between July 2021 and November 2021,said Knight Frank India, the leading real estate consultancy in the country.

“Kolkata’s real estate market continues to benefit from the stamp duty cut window extension. Though the pace of residential property registrations slowed in November 2021, the sharp y-o-y rise since July 2021, is encouraging for both developers and buyers going forward.  Due to record-low home loan rates, discounts and stamp duty reductions, registration of mid and luxury residential property transactions in Kolkata has continued to expand at a rapid pace. The original stamp duty reduction policy, intended to boost demand for residential real estate, was supposed to last until October 30. However, despite the encouraging cumulative numbers, the month of November 2021 registered a YoY degrowth of 62% when compared with November 2020. This is the first time in the past five months that property registrations have declined YoY.

“We are hopeful that the next three months will see more deals being sealed in Kolkata’s residential segment as prices remain stable and the interest rates continue to be low. This is an opportune time for buyers to execute transactions before there is any upward revision in prices by developers as stamp duty cut window has been extended till January 31, 2022.

In terms of unit sizes, apartments up to 500 sq ft, witnessed 81% y-o-y degrowth in November 2021, which is the highest across all size brackets. Unit sizes of 501-1,000 sq ft and 1,001 sq ft and above registered 41% and 25% YoY degrowth respectively.

Whilst there has been a decline in this size bracket too, it is interesting to note that bigger apartments remained the flavour of the month even when overall volumes are low. This is also indicative of the ongoing trend of end-users leaning towards bigger apartments as witnessed since the start of the pandemic as work and study requirements take priority in home ownership preferences.

Going forward, the extension of stamp duty cut to 31st January 2022 will help channelize incremental demand in the residential real estate sector. With developers citing high input costs and intent to review selling prices, end-users are likely to take homebuying decisions while the rebate lasts.