By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : Chandigarh, the city with the highest per capita income in India, is on another high. Its banks are full to the brim with deposits of nearly Rs.242 billion ($6.15 billion).
The income tax department has listed over 1,800 millionaires here on the basis of tax returns filed last year (2006-07). Data collected by the Chandigarh administration on its over 1.1 million residents have revealed this interesting fact.
The deposits amounting to Rs.242 billion, calculated for the financial year 2006-07, have been kept by city residents in the 255 bank branches, including several nationalised, private and three foreign banks.
In the previous year, 2005-06, banks had deposits of over Rs.207 billion ($5.25 billion). The credit amount from these banks in 2005-06 was over Rs.160 billion and in 2006-07 was Rs.195 billion.
A lot of this money is believed to be that of NRIs and landed people from Punjab and Haryana who have sold their land during the commercial boom in the region.
“We have clients, including NRIs, who have deposits of over Rs.50 million in their savings accounts in the bank,” a senior manager of a leading nationalised bank told IANS here.
Chandigarh, called the City Beautiful by its founder architect Le Corbusier, has the highest per capita annual income among all Indian cities at Rs.86,629 ($2,200).
This is not all. Many other features are also showing an upward trend.
The city has an astonishing tele-density – the number of landline and mobile connections compared to its population – at nearly 98 percent. The city saw a growth of 20 percent in its tele-density in fiscal 2005-06. In 2004-05, the tele-density was 78 percent.
There were 836,787 mobile and 248,961 landline phone connections in this union territory in 2005-06. Telecom companies say that the latest figure of users will be much higher. As per the 2001 Census, the city’s population was at 900,910.
“This is an emerging city and has a lot of potential for the future. With the IT, software, hotels and tourism sectors expected to boom here in the coming years, Chandigarh holds a lot of promise,” the city’s director of tourism and public relations Vivek Atray told IANS.
The city already boasts of the highest density of vehicles in the country – with over 650,000 registered vehicles against a population of just 1.1 million. This does not include the floating population of over 100,000 vehicles coming from the adjoining towns of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab.
Chandigarh and both these towns now comprise an area often referred to as the tri-city. Over 200 new vehicles are registered in the city every day.
The city also has the highest concentration of Mercedes and BMW cars after the industrial city of Ludhiana, which of course is three times bigger in size and population and is a big industrial hub of Asia.
Real estate prices in the 114-sq km city have hit the roof with, for instance, a 500-sq yard plot in the upscale Sector 11 being auctioned for over Rs.40 million at a government auction last month. The buyer was the mother of an IT professional settled in the US.
A private builder is offering luxury flats and villas near the IT Park here at prices which were unheard in the city so far.
A one-room flat here is priced at Rs.5.2 million and a four-bedroom flat at over Rs.30 million. A 500-sq yard villa is an exorbitant Rs.65 million.
“The property prices in the city have gone beyond the reach of common, middle-class, salaried people. Living is going to become costlier in this city,” senior Panjab University official Sanjiv Tewari said.
While most other things are growing, it is the water consumption of city residents that has seen a downfall. Water consumption decreased to 50.07 kilolitres per person annually in 2006-07 from 52.59 kilolitres in 2005-06.
But power consumption went up on an average from 1,070 units in 2005-06 to 1,162 units per person annually in 2006-07.