Aamby Valley City is a township developed by the

Sahara India Pariwar Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, ma ...

on the outskirts of Pune, India.

Construction and connectivity

The city, founded in 2006, is spread over of hilly terrain in the ''Sahyadri hills'' of the Western Ghats. It is about from

Lonavala Lonavala-Khandala is a hill station and a Municipal Council in the Pune district, Maharashtra, India. It is about west of Pune and to the east of Mumbai. It is known for its production of the hard candy '' chikki'' and is also a major stop on t ...

, from the city of

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

and from the city

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. The township is connected by road from

. The township has an airstrip that stopped functioning in late 2016. It has an average annual rainfall of from June to September. Marketed to India's super-rich, the city was developed in five phases. It was designed and master planned by GruenBobby Mukherji & Associates in the year 2003. It is almost entirely owned and operated by Sahara and related entities. It has between 600800 luxury bungalows priced between 5 crore to 20 crore. Three large man made lakes have been created by constructing dams. The largest lake is 1.5 km in length. The city is spread on and ten villages near Lonavala and boasts of an airstrip, helipads, shopping complexes, PGA approved 18-hole golf course, captive power plant, two small dams, an international school, and a hospital. The township has multiple luxury restaurants and a lagoon with an artificial beach adjacent to the replica of Varanasi ghat for cultural programs. In late 2016, the golf course and the airstrip stopped functioning.

Financial troubles

Since its founding the city has faced variety of financial and legal troubles for having received investments of 62,643 crore from deposits collected by four Sahara cooperative societies allegedly in violation of norms. Per Sahara group, the Aamby Valley project was valued at about 1 trillion ($14.76 billion) in 2014, citing a Knight Frank India report. This high valuation claimed by Sahara was in contrast with the weakened financial profile of the project. According to

Securities and Exchange Board of India The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the Regulatory agency, regulatory body for securities and commodity market in India under the administrative domain of Ministry of Finance (India), Ministry of Finance within the Government ...

, Aamby Valley posted an after-tax profit of 90 million in the 12 months ended March 2013 compared to 694 million in the July 2011-March 2012 period. In 2018–19, the Aamby Valley project made a consolidated loss of 994 crore compared to a loss of 1,133 crore in the previous year. Its total income came down to 958 crore in 2018-19 from 1,530 crore a year ago. In 2016, the

Tehsildar In Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, a tehsildar, talukdar, or mamlatdar is a land revenue officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from a tehsil with regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as a ...

Mulshi Mulshi is a village and an administrative block in Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state ...

, a local revenue authority, sealed the gated township for non-payment of taxes. It was reopened the same day after Sahara group made a payment of 2.53 crore.

Sales proceedings

In April 2017, the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

ordered the auction of Aamby Valley project to recoup 14,000 crore the company owes to duped investors. The court set a seemingly high reserve price of 37,000 crore, which led to limited interest and only two bids and no buyers in the end. In July 2018, after failing to attract prospective buyers, the supreme court deferred the auction and allowed to city to be under control of the Sahara Parivar. In 2019, the court decided to continue with the auction. In January 2020, the supreme court appointed a receiver to manage Aamby Valley and to explore a new auction.

Sponsorship

In 2014, Aamby Valley inked a 4-year $14 million sponsorship deal with

Bangladesh national cricket team The Bangladesh men's national cricket team (), commonly known as The Tigers, is the national cricket team of Bangladesh, administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). They are a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with ...

. Without citing any reasons, the

Bangladesh Cricket Board The Bangladesh Cricket Board (; abbreviated as BCB), formerly known as Bangladesh Cricket Control Board, is the governing body of cricket in Bangladesh. It became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1977, and a Lis ...

ended the contract 15 months before it was scheduled to end.

References

External links