Provident Housing to develop townships in Bengaluru, Chennai; to construct 6.5 million square feet

Mallanna Sasalu, Chief Operating Officer, Provident Housing Limited

Provident Housing, the Bengaluru-based affordable housing wing of Puravankara, plans to launch projects of more than 6.5 million square feet, including two townships in Bengaluru and Chennai, within the next three months.

"We have two-second phase launches and five fresh project launches within three to six months. Currently, we have 8,500 units under construction, and further 6,500 units are being launched across Kochi, Chennai and Bengaluru within the period," chief operating officer Mallanna Sasalu told Moneycontrol.

The launches will add up to about Rs 2,000 crore of construction value and are expected to generate about Rs 4,200 crore of revenue for the company.
The company said it has acquired land and secured necessary regulatory permissions for the upcoming projects.

Townships for community building

In January 2023, the company will launch 2700 apartments in Provident Sunworth township near Mysuru Road in Bengaluru.

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"We have already delivered 2784 units and the upcoming launch will see apartment costs of Rs 5,500-6,000 per square foot," Sasalu added. A school has been planned, which will be operated by a private company. Additionally, more than 1.9 lakh square feet of retail space is being planned within the community, he added.

In Kochi, the company will launch the second phase of a township sprawling across 23 acres with 1,555 units within three months. The apartment cost will be Rs 7,500- 8,000 per sq foot and about 2 acres will be dedicated for commercial development.

Sasalu said with land in city centres exhausting at a rapid pace, more companies are venturing to the outskirts or acquiring land parcels away from the city, especially for towships "This has opened up new problems like infrastructure issues or unavailability of jobs in city exteriors, notably for the affordable housing segment.

In southern Indian real estate markets, 40 percent of sales come from affordable housing. However, we see affordability evolving further. Today, an affordable housing range can be capped between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 80 lakh in Tier I cities," he said.

However, this is unlikely to affect the affordable housing segment in townships. "We can explore additional ways of reducing operation cost of customers, such as re-using water consumption or through solutions where needs of the community are thought through and incorporated. Creating value often refers to tangible ways that can be measured," he said.

The company's existing townships in Bengaluru include Provident Welworth City with 3,200 units, Cosmocity with 1639 units, Provident Park Square with 2082 units and Provident Capella/Botanico with 1920 units. "The ability to acquire lands and their availability will broaden the scope of affordable townships," Sasalu added.

The company is also planning 100 acres of plotted development in Chennai and an additional 100-150 acres in Bangalore within the next 3-6 months.

Operational net-zero by 2030

Sasalu said the company will be at the environmental, social and governance (ESG) forefront within the next year.

"Currently, between 50 and 60 percent of the water required for our projects is recycled, and we generate at least 10-15 percent of the electricity we need from solar energy," Sasalu said. Because of government restrictions, we are now unable to generate renewable energy in far-off places and transmit it to residential projects, he added.

"However, we plan to go operational net-zero by 2030 with reduced landfilling and complete carbon footprint compensation of water or electricity usage," Sasalu said.

Companies achieve operational net-zero when they can compensate for the carbon footprints generated by them using solutions like creating forests in places away from the city or planting enough trees. "According to material science, it is difficult to replace cement but it will happen when the entire sector will think in that direction -- probably through the industrialisation of the construction sector," he added.

On November 29, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, said in a virtual address at a real estate summit, Brigade Reap: Propagate 2022, "Construction technology is key for India to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070."

"We are already using recycled water for our construction, pre-cast materials and chemicals to cure cement instead of gallons of water," Sasalu said.

Additionally, Sasalu said they are awaiting approval for a low-rise apartment sprawling across 16 acres in northern Bengaluru. Each apartment requires 6 kilowatts (kW), or 8 kW of electricity, and the company said it will reuse almost 100 percent of power across 273 units.