Making cities more liveable should be our goal, says Max Estates’ Sahil Vachani

Sahil Vachani and Shree Laxmi at the Rising Bharat Summit

Max Estates Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sahil Vachani, on Wednesday, underscored the urgent need to make Indian cities more liveable amid rapid economic and real estate growth.

Speaking at News18's Rising Bharat Summit 2025, Vachani underlined the dual challenges of capitalising on growth opportunities while maintaining urban sustainability.

"The tailwinds driving the real estate sector are clear - India's growing economy is a major force. But the real risk lies in our cities becoming unliveable if we don't plan wisely,” he remarked.

Vachani further noted, “With a planned approach, efficient bureaucracy, and continued support from the government, we believe we can build more liveable cities and strong social infrastructure.”

Speaking at a panel discussion moderated by Nalin Mehta, managing editor of Moneycontrol, Vachani highlighted rising pollution in the NCR and the climate change as some challenges that have to be addressed through sustainable development practices, awareness at city level and deeper level of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Another panelist Shrilaxmi V S, additional chief executive officer (planning) at Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA), highlighted the importance of sustainable development and said that green development projects should be given promoted.

“Our priority  will be to approve projects which are pro-environment. Green building projects are given being priority. Unless cities are sustainable, there is no sense of making concrete jungles,” she said.

Shrilaxmi further said that the the opening of Noida International Airport in Jewar will open new avenues of investment opportunities and become a driver in the region’s growth.

“Getting an airport in NCR will decongest the region and bring more investors in sectors such as IT, real estate and industries. So Jewar airport will boost the economy and will bring investment in the region,” she said.

Highlighting the growth potential of Noida and Greater Noida, Vachani said that prognosis of NCR is very bullish as these twin cities have emerged as infrastructure hubs and lots of activities are happening.

“There is a lot of traction from manufacturing sector in the region. Mobile handset manufacturing firm ‘Nothing’ is now manufacturing in Noida, which is emerging as a big centre for GCCs and banking firms. We can now see huge inflow of investment, companies and services in Noida. With the coming of companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others, the social infrastructure of the city will improve,” he said.

Total portfolio of the listed real estate developer Max Estates is 12 million square feet, which includes delivered along with under construction projects. In 2024, Max Estates raised Rs 800 crore via QIPs.

“We are focused on NCR region. Our ideology is that we create such a development where we live well and work well. We are very focused in terms of our asset classes,” he said.

Development of New Noida and multimodal logistics hub

Shrilaxmi said that there is very growing demand for land in Noida-Greater Noida region for industries, logistics and real estate and therefore the Authority is planning a new city “New Noida” near the confluence of Eastern and Western Freight Corridor, Yamuna Expressway and Easter Peripheral Expressway (EPE).

“We are developing New Noida to cater to growing land demand for industries, real estate, IT sector and educational institutes,” she said.

A multimodal logistics hub is also being developed at the confluence of eastern and western freight corridors under the project Integrated Industrial Township Greater Noida Limited (IITGNL).

“Hitech industries, IT companies etc are our focus in near future for bringing investment here,” she said.

IITGNL is a joint venture between Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) and is designed as a smart township equipped with plug-and-play infrastructure and an automatic solid waste management system.