Magarpatta City: The farmers’ cybercity

Magarpatta City is a modern township on the outskirts of Pune. From a distance, it resembles any other modern township that has sprung up around New Delhi or Bangalore or Hyderabad. It consists of the essential element of modern Indian urban life – a mini golf course, an artificial lake, a cyber city with buildings in gleaming glass and multistoried residential buildings.

This is where the similarities end. What sets apart the Magarpatta City project from other development projects elsewhere in the country is that this was conceived and implemented by a group of farmers

who, till only a few years ago, were ploughing their little plots of land in the area.

The concept of Magarpatta City took roots in the early 1990s. On the outskirts of Pune, about 100 families cling to their ancestral farms when the concrete jungle and real estate developers threaten to swallow them. Clinging together, for two decades they oppose the Pune city administrators who want to convert their village, Magarpatta, to an urban zone. It was then that it struck them that they need not oppose the development but could build a city of their own, by pooling their land. They knew their lands would eventually have buildings and not sugarcane on them.

The farmers started with borrowed capital of around US $ 440,000. Over about five years, they have already spent about US $ 17 million in developing the city. When the city is complete, it will have dwellings for 12,000 families (or 50,000 people) and four million square feet in workspace for 40,000 people. About 4000 people will be employed in support services, as against 1200 employed in agriculture years ago.

By the time the city is complete in 2008, the project will have consumed US $ 445 million. These farmers knew little about the construction business and had little money. That did not deter them. They pooled their lands to form a cooperative-like structure where each family got shares equal to size of the land each family owned. Later they converted this entity into a formal company, Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company.

There were some tricky issues. A statute called the Urban Land Ceiling Act came in the way stipulating that no company or individual could own more than 1000 square meters in urban areas. Farmers needed a waiver for their company. After dealing with all levels of the government, the land was acquired as a single mass after a six-year delay.

The project took off in 2000. After the early years, when the paperwork was in place, the farmers’ cooperative sent architects based in Pune to study townships abroad. Gradually, the finer details of a plan fell into place. It was decided that Magarpatta City would adopt the San Jose-Santa Clara 'walk-to-work' concept. There would be no buildings on a quarter of the land. It would be left open. Now, the project of the farmer-turned-promoters is setting amenity standards for the rest of India. For example, Magarpatta City has one of the largest residential Solar Water-Heating systems in the country with a capacity to heat up to 1.2 lakh litres of water per day. Till date, solar panels have been put in 1000 residential apartment. Once complete, the total capacity of the solar project will be around 700,000 litres a day, and the city is expected to shave off US $ 850000 off its electricity bill every year.

Besides creating swank homes, it is targeting new age industries like software services and BPO. It has been built to global standards. It has been driven by private initiative. Over half a dozen companies have signed up to move into the first cybercity building. About 3,000 people work for these companies, which include Avaya, Sybase, EXL Service and Aviva Life Insurance. Once new sections in the city come up, companies like EDS, Amdocs and Cymbal Corporation will move in. Meanwhile, the farmer promoters have decided not to sit around. Some have bought vehicles to start a transportation business. Other villagers have invested their money in buying machinery to make aluminium channels or pre-cast concrete slabs to be used in the buildings. Many are learning new skills in IT and marketing to of use to the new township. All the while, property rates in the township are rising.

The Magarpatta experiment seems to have paid dividends. It is no longer an exception. A recent change in statute in Maharashtra now allows agricultural land to be pooled together for constructing residential and commercial townships. This is seen as a revolutionary step by which farmers can leverage the value of what is usually their sole possession, land, and earn much higher incomes than what they normally do. Magarpatta City – in fact is an extension of an earlier experiment that took place a few decades ago at another shantytown adjoining Pune.

For a number of years, Pune was known only for its pensioners and centres of learning. When the city’s landscape began changing a few decades ago with industrial and scientific establishments setting up projects in the city, an enterprising local politician named Annasaheb Magar got the government to back his idea of creating Pimpri-Chinchwad, now a bustling industrial township on the outskirts and one of the country's richest municipalities.

Magarpatta City is Part II of the same dream, now being fulfilled by Annasaheb’s nephew, Satish Magar. As they say, it’s all in the family.