Staff Reporter,
Recognising the future potential of Nagpur as a vibrant city with possibility to emerge as logistics and defence manufacturing hub, the iconic brand World Trade Centre (WTC) has decided to start a Centre at Nagpur very soon. This will be third WTC in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune and will be a game changer for Nagpur’s commercial skyline.
A special team of World Trade Centres Association (WTCA) carried out preliminary survey of Orange city and zeroed on the location as well. Sharing this happy development with select group of mediapersons, WTCA India Director Zubin Jall said that they would like to locate WTC near inter-change of Metro routes near Sitabuldi. Infact, world over WTC has preferred such locations in Central Business District (CBD) and in case of Nagpur CBD has been proposed at Sitabuldi.
WTCA team also interacted with key policy makers including senior officers of Nagpur Metro Rail to know about project. According to Jall, WTCA is in a final stage of identifying a licencee and exact location and hoped that after place, person is identified, the WTC will become a reality within next 36 to 42 months. But unlike other commercial buildings, WTC itself becomes a prestigious address for businesses, because of its iconic brand value recognised globally. WTCA had built the WTC in New York and also at Mumbai. Recent WTC launch at New Delhi was a run-away success, Jall stated while playing down the current sluggish mood of realty market.
According to Jall, WTCs all over the world are interconnected and hold regular seminars, which are attended by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of big companies. WTCA provide special services to tenants and also has an exclusive WTC Club and annual events and meets are revenue churners, he said. About over-supply of retail space the WTCA top boss claimed that realty sector had witnessed many ups and downs and very soon market would bounce back.
Responding to apprehension about slowdown in the realty market due to decisions like demonetisation, introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), Jall welcomed these steps and described them as “Right step in the interest of consumer. In the long run these decisions will help the real estate sector.”
About massive commercial complexes proposed by NMRCL along metro route including one proposed at Morris College ground, Jall claimed that WTC never competes with other developers and has never faced any problem to sell the space.
Jall also ruled out bidding for this project of Nagpur Metro and stated that WTC never bids for any project and construct properties as per their own design and specifications. About the size and scale of proposed WTC at Nagpur, Jall said “We have not decided the size of the centre and it will be decided by our licencee depending upon the market conditions.”
Justifying the decision to go for WTC at Tier-II city like Nagpur, WTCA India chief said, big cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune are already saturated and there is hardly any scope for future growth. Next centres of growth are Tier-II cities like Nagpur and WTC can be a game-changer, he predicted. Presently WTCs are functional at five places in India and have selected licencees in 25 more cities-part of Smart City project.

thehitavada.com