Over the last month, Vera Varghese, 65, has had brushes with a leopard and a python close to her hillside home in Goa’s Alto Dabolim village. She says she has never had such experiences before in the 10 years that she has lived here, and she doesn’t think it is coincidental.

Varghese and many others in the village blame the frequent leopard sightings in recent months on a massive real estate project promoted by DLF Ltd. This project is stripping what was once dense jungle. We have been asking the wildlife warden to set up traps for leopards seen in the village over the last two months, Varghese said.

Protests by villagers have prompted local authorities to ask DLF to stop hill-cutting operations until an inspection is completed. Local people, along with the environmental action group Goa Foundation, have challenged the project before the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court.

More : indianexpress.com

DLF has sold its 15-acre property in a posh Bangalore suburb after plunging footfalls and poor margins nixed the company’s for a large-scale mall in the locality. The firm sold the land in Whitefield, to NetApp India for Rs 120 crore.

“The firm has decided not to go ahead with the mall project. It had earlier planned to build a retail mall on this particular land parcel, but has now decided to hive it off,” said an official privy to the development.

The move once again highlights the Gurgaon-based company’s travails in the southern states. DLF has had a run in with the two states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where it announced projects in the heady days of 2006-07. The developer has pulled out of the Bidadi Knowledge City project, estimated to cost a whopping Rs 60,000 crore last year citing difficult market conditions. With the project failing to take off, the Karnataka government returned Rs 400 crore on May day last year to DLF.

More : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Incorporated in 1986, Royal Orchid Hotels Limited (ROHL) operates 13 properties across seven destinations with 1,093 rooms across India along with its subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. Of these, five properties are located in Bengaluru, two each in Mysore and Pune and one each in Jaipur, Goa, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

ROHL has properties of various categories across key business and leisure destinations to cater to a wide array of customers. Most properties of the company are categorized under four distinct brands viz. Hotel Royal Orchid (five star business hotels), Royal Orchid Central (four star business hotels), Royal Orchid Suites (four star extended stay hotels) and Royal Orchid Resorts (leisure hotels). In addition to this, it operates one property under the brand called Peppermint in Hyderabad and one under the international brand called ‘Ramada’ in Bengaluru.

The company has a distinct unique strategy and the emphasis is on low set-up cost through the combination of ownership and asset light properties (leased) leading to higher returns. The company covers all aspects of the hospitality industry like rooms, catering, restaurants, bars, etc and has a tie-up with Wyndham Hotel Group for Ramada brand of hotels.

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Hospitality management firm Sarovar Hotels & Resorts on Tuesday said it will add 19 new properties to its portfolio across the country by 2010-end.

Sarovar Hotels also said it is in advanced stages of talks with an Africa-based hospitality company for a tie-up to open a chain of properties in religious destinations in India.

We will open 19 new properties across India by end of this year with a total inventory of around 2,000 rooms. Of these, 17 will be under the management contract system where investment will be made by property owners, while we will manage the properties and give our brand name, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts Managing Director Anil Madhok said.

More : beta.thehindu.com

Realty major Ansal API today said it will invest around Rs 300 crore in setting up an industrial park at Ludhiana in Punjab.

The park to be set up on 45 acres of land is expected to be operational by early 2012.

We have already acquired the land and the project will take off soon. The initial investment of around Rs 300 crore will be entirely funded from internal accruals, Ansal API’s Chief Operating Officer Deepak Sachdeva told PTI here.

The park, Hampton Court Business Park, will only house eco-friendly industrial units from a range of sectors like IT, apparel, sports goods, auto, cycle and electrical goods.

More : business-standard.com

My wife and I have taken a housing loan of Rs 15.77 lakh in our names with me as the second applicant. For a 20-year term, the EMI is Rs 14,500. My wife pays Rs 10,000 and I pay Rs 4,500. Both of us are income-tax assessees. How do we claim the benefits in respect of the interest and principal repayment towards the housing loan? - Ashutosh

Both of you can claim the interest on the housing loan in the proportion of your ownership as deduction. You can also claim the principal repayment as a deduction in the proportion of your ownership along with your wife in the property.

In case the property is self-occupied, the deduction in respect of interest would be restricted to Rs 1,50,000. This limit of Rs 1,50,000 would apply with reference to each of the co-owners.

More : thehindubusinessline.com

Property firm Omaxe Ltd expects to generate revenue of Rs 20 billion in the year to March 2011, and hopes to become a debt-free company in two years, a top official said on Thursday.

India’s property market has turned a corner in the last few months, recovering from lows hit earlier this year, as consumer confidence returns and banks offer attractive home loans. The renewed activity in the housing market was helping the company, which sold Rs 1 billion worth of homes in December alone, chairman and managing director Rohtas Goel said.

From April it (internal accruals per month) must be around 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion). In FY10/11, we will receive almost 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) plus from internal accruals. And 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) in FY12, he said.

More : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Several months after it got land on the cheap, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) may be striking it rich by selling off a portion of that property to American realtor Hines.Reliance is supposed to develop a multi services Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Gurgaon on the land.

RIL, which had put its plans to set up SEZs worth billions of dollars, is now scouting for a strategic partner in its multi services SEZ project in Gurgaon. According to sources, the company has already initiated talks with the American realty firm Hines.

While the modalities of this deal are still being worked out, RIL has an option to sell 15 per cent in the SEZ to Hines and also give rights to develop up to 200 acres of the zone, valuing the project at about $4 billion.

More : profit.ndtv.com

Carlson Hotels Worldwide, one of the world¹s leading hotel companies, today announced plans to expand its luxury Regent brand into India with the opening of The Regent Gurgaon in late 2013.

The Regent Gurgaon is the latest expansion of the Regent brand globally with several other properties currently under development The Regent Bangkok, The Regent Doha, The Regent Dubrovnik, The Regent Emirates Pearl, Abu Dhabi, The Regent Kuala Lumpur, The Regent Maldives, The Regent Manila Bay, The Regent Palmas Del Mar Puerto Rico, and The Regent Phuket Cape Panwa, all
scheduled to open within the next three years.

³The Regent brand has strong historical roots in Asia. With this new property, Regent will now have a total of nine properties in the region, including three in operation, and six contracted projects,² said Hubert Joly, president and CEO of Carlson.

More : hotelworldnetwork.com

The amnesty scheme for tax defaulters launched by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has failed to attract property tax payers in the Capital, with barely 76,000 coming forward to deposit the tax.

The civic agency was expecting property tax from more than 18 lakh properties.

The MCD amnesty scheme was launched last year and the deadline was extended from October to December to bring more people under the tax net.

More : indianexpress.com