- To accelerate the investment in Jammu & Kashmir, the government of the Union territory J&K real estate summit, pledged investment of worth 18,900 crore rupees.
- In the last few months, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has taken many steps to ease up investment in the state.
- By the end of this decade, insurgency in the state will come to an end.
Since the abrogation of Article 370, the Modi government has taken many steps to integrate Jammu & Kashmir fully with India by harmonizing the various laws that regulated land, labour, and capital with the rest of the country. One big step in the direction was allowing the companies and individuals from anywhere in the country to invest in the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
To accelerate the investment in Jammu & Kashmir, the government of the Union territory J&K real estate summit, pledged investment of worth 18,900 crore rupees.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that large-scale infrastructure development, denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir earlier, was now possible. “By combining rich natural resources with external investment and technical expertise, the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir will now have access to a higher quality of life.”
In the last few months, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has taken many steps to ease up the investment in the state, including a one-stop portal for regulatory clearances. After preparing the groundwork, this real estate investment summit and another similar summit will be held in Srinagar in May 2022.
The National Real Estate Development Council, a self-regulatory body under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, is making big efforts to ensure the development of the real estate sector in the state. The body is led by veteran real estate mogul Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani group, and under his leadership, the body will ensure that the top private real estate developers across the country start the project in the state.
The Union territory of J&K has a huge opportunity for tourism and real estate, given its scenic natural beauty and weather conditions. Locations in the state can also be developed as summer houses for the affluent people from neighbouring states like Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi UT. The per capita income of the state can grow manifold riding on tourism, just like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. However, so far these developments were not possible given the discriminatory laws against investment from other parts of the country in the state.
But with the abrogation of Article 370 and good governance by the Manoj Sinha administration, the state is poised to become investment heaven for industrialists and HNIs. The Jammu and Kashmir government has signed 39 Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) to boost employment and per capita income.
“The NAREDCO will train 10,000 workers in various skills of the construction industry, electrical, plumbing, masonry, carpentry and the likes,” the Lieutenant Governor said.
The investment in real estate and the development of UT will also help in changing the demographics of the state. As of now, UT is Muslim dominated, but once the migration from highly populated but economically poor states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Odisha starts, the population of Hindus will automatically increase. And this will help in curbing the insurgency in the state. Moreover, various locations in Jammu & Kashmir can be developed as ideal retirement homes for the people across the country employed in the private and public sectors.
“There is significant demand from people living in Srinagar to buy a house in Jammu to spend their summers,” said Niranjan Hiranandani, vice chairman of NAREDCO.
He further added, “Similarly, we expect people from other parts of the country to buy homes in Jammu as their second homes. Incentivisation will go a long way in accelerating real estate growth in Jammu & Kashmir.”
Pradeep Aggarwal, the founder of Signature Global, plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in Jammu & Kashmir to develop 10,000 housing units.
“Like other cities, there is a demand for affordable housing units in Jammu & Kashmir. We are looking forward to tapping this opportunity,” said Aggarwal. Signature Global has also developed housing projects in Gurgaon.
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The project of full integration of Jammu & Kashmir that started two years ago will take almost a decade, but this is a permanent solution for a problem that the country faced for the last seven decades. Hopefully, by the end of this decade, insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir will come to an end.