Merlin Group, a Kolkata-based real estate plans to invest over Rs 2000 crore to develop one of the largest sports –themed Greenfield township at Rajarhat- Bishnupur area (Rajarhat Chowmatha , near New Town, Kolkata.

Spread over 45 acre the project christened as “RISE – Sports Republic” will comprise 10,000 flats. The first phase of the mammoth township project will be developed on 16 acres of area. 2529 flats will be developed in the first phase. Out of these, 968 apartments will be sold through lottery now. There will be 2bhk and 3 bhk apartments priced at Rs 35-50 lakhs.

“Kolkata property market has remained resilient during the pandemic. There had been a major revival in sales of residential real estate projects in the 2nd quarter of 2020-21 riding on the back of a resilient economy and vaccination drive by the Govt. People living in standalone houses, realized the need for shifting to apartments in gated communities with all amenities required for modern living,” said Saket Mohta, Managing Director, Merlin Group.

The sports township will include sports academies and sports related infrastructural facilities that include Cricket Ground, Football Ground, Indoor sports area, swimming pool and a host of other amenities. Internationally acclaimed sports brands are setting up a state of the art cricket academy, a football academy and a swimming academy. A nationally acclaimed Martial Arts Academy will also be set up. “We are in final round discussion with a few Olympic champions, members of world cup winning teams in football and cricket , world’s renowned soccer stars, legendary cricketers of India , internationally acclaimed swimmers for setting up their academies in our sports city. We are also finalizing the deal with a Bollywood star for setting up a Martial art academy”,said Mohta.

The second phase of the project will witness the launch of a multispecialty hospital, a school of international repute. A retail block with hypermarkets from organized retail giants and offices with co-working space will also be there as part of the township. The township will also include facilities for other sports activities like Basketball, Badminton, squash, Table Tennis.

“Children these days are glued to the screens, be it phones, television or computers . Digital media and Television have facilitated flow of information at a lightning speed in the internet age , but over exposure to digital media also is causing an extremely negative impact on children and kids. This trend is quite dangerous and also deterring their physical and mental growth. `Rise’ with excellent facilities will attract these children to the playground. This will provide the much needed fillip to the holistic growth of children”, added Mr. Saket Mohta, MD of Merlin Group.

As part of its marketing initiative, Merlin Group is launching a corporate football league christened RPL – RISE PREMIERE LEAGUE at the football ground on 23rd and 24th October under the mentorship of veteran footballers namely Manash Bhattacharya, Biswajit Bhattacharya, Prasanta Banerjee and Krishnendu Roy. Fifteen corporates namely.; TCS, Genpact,

, Cognizant, HSBC, HDFC, British Telecom, PWC, FIIOB, Red FM, Big FM, Friends FM, Fever FM, Nuvoco Vista Corporate Ltd., Woodlands Hospital and the Merlin Group itself will participate.

Merlin Group has projects across Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Pune, Chennai as well as Colombo across retail, residential, hospitality and commercial and plans to launch 1.5 mn sft of projects across segments over the next 2 years.