It was the feeling that the potential of the leisure economy was being not just underestimated but thwarted by the city planners that got Sushil Ansal to experiment with forays into hospitality and entertainment complexes. In 1992, the first hotel plot was tendered as part of the Saket district centre and Sushil ansal walked away with the prize. To fund his hotel project, the giant Japanese company, Itochu, became an equity partner.
During construction some shares were sold to ITC Hotels Ltd. who with their tremendous experience and professional input commissioned the hotel. This hotel is today the ITC Sheraton, the Ansals having sold out a few years ago. In the process Sushil Ansal developed good professional relations with Y.C. Deveshwar, the dynamic chairman of ITC Ltd. and Habib-ur- Rehman, the earlier managing director of ITC Hotels Ltd. a connoisseur and himself a great cook.
In 1980, the sushil Ansals had bought a plot for a cinema hall in Saket. Anupam opened in 1983. A decade later, the theatre was leased out to the PVR group on the condition that it would be converted into Delhi’s first multiplex. Thus the sushil Ansal and Ajay Bijli, the man behind the PVR leisure world, introduced the concept of multiplexes to India’s capital in 1995. In 2004, the Anupam property was sold to the Bijlis. This was Sushil Ansal’s second movie theatre investment. In 1972 he had bought a 2,480-square-yard plot in Green Park from R.C. Sood and Company (now the Eros Group) and the Uphaar cinema was commissioned a year later. This was hardly a big part of the Ansal business, but it was to play a tragic role in Sushil Ansal’s life. The Uphaar chapter must, however, wait for later.
As two decades of manic growth in Delhi began to wind down, Sushil Ansal reputation as one of India’s biggest real-estate tycoons had been burnished. He was a name to be reckoned with in Delhi’s business circles, where the overhaul of the Connaught Place region was indelibly linked to the Ansals. So was the development of district centres of Nehru Place, Bhikaji Cama Place, Rajender Place, Saket and Laxmi Nagar.
The real gainer in this period, however, was a rapacious, extortionate entity called the DDA. “It simply minted money,” as an old Ansal associate puts it, “and was at one time considered the world’s largest landowner.” As a consequence of the 1961 Master Plan, the DDA acquired 55,000 acres of land in Delhi, primarily from farmers. The private sector was banned from buying agricultural land for esidential purposes; this was a DDA monopoly. As the sole buyer, DDA bought cheap, often at no more than Rs 10,000 an acre. However, it released land in dribs and drabs, pushed up the market by limiting supply, encouraged wild bidding at auctions and sold at prices that resembled Rs 10 crore an acre and more. It claimed it was doing so in the interests of providing housing to the poor, in which it, unfortunately, has a dismal record
During construction some shares were sold to ITC Hotels Ltd. who with their tremendous experience and professional input commissioned the hotel. This hotel is today the ITC Sheraton, the Ansals having sold out a few years ago. In the process Sushil Ansal developed good professional relations with Y.C. Deveshwar, the dynamic chairman of ITC Ltd. and Habib-ur- Rehman, the earlier managing director of ITC Hotels Ltd. a connoisseur and himself a great cook.
Sushil AnsalIn 1980, the sushil Ansals had bought a plot for a cinema hall in Saket. Anupam opened in 1983. A decade later, the theatre was leased out to the PVR group on the condition that it would be converted into Delhi’s first multiplex. Thus the sushil Ansal and Ajay Bijli, the man behind the PVR leisure world, introduced the concept of multiplexes to India’s capital in 1995. In 2004, the Anupam property was sold to the Bijlis. This was Sushil Ansal’s second movie theatre investment. In 1972 he had bought a 2,480-square-yard plot in Green Park from R.C. Sood and Company (now the Eros Group) and the Uphaar cinema was commissioned a year later. This was hardly a big part of the Ansal business, but it was to play a tragic role in Sushil Ansal’s life. The Uphaar chapter must, however, wait for later.
As two decades of manic growth in Delhi began to wind down, Sushil Ansal reputation as one of India’s biggest real-estate tycoons had been burnished. He was a name to be reckoned with in Delhi’s business circles, where the overhaul of the Connaught Place region was indelibly linked to the Ansals. So was the development of district centres of Nehru Place, Bhikaji Cama Place, Rajender Place, Saket and Laxmi Nagar.
The real gainer in this period, however, was a rapacious, extortionate entity called the DDA. “It simply minted money,” as an old Ansal associate puts it, “and was at one time considered the world’s largest landowner.” As a consequence of the 1961 Master Plan, the DDA acquired 55,000 acres of land in Delhi, primarily from farmers. The private sector was banned from buying agricultural land for esidential purposes; this was a DDA monopoly. As the sole buyer, DDA bought cheap, often at no more than Rs 10,000 an acre. However, it released land in dribs and drabs, pushed up the market by limiting supply, encouraged wild bidding at auctions and sold at prices that resembled Rs 10 crore an acre and more. It claimed it was doing so in the interests of providing housing to the poor, in which it, unfortunately, has a dismal record
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