After a long hiatus, Shrachi Group is betting big on real estate.

Shrachi Realty, the real estate arm of the group, founded by late Shravan Todi, is hopeful of taking up projects worth 2 million square feet, at least four times what it took up in the last five years.

Cash flows from brisk sales in some of the legacy projects in the aftermath of Covid and untangling of legal knots in a few land parcels, will enable the group to scale up operations at levels seen before 2010.

“We are working on multiple projects at this point and they will be launched over the next three years. They are spread across Calcutta, Rajarhat, Haldia, Durgapur, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur among others,” Rahul Todi, managing director of Shrachi Realty, said.

The largest project will be executed in Rajarhat by Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Ltd, the group’s joint venture with the West Bengal Housing Board.

The group claims to have resolved some of the outstanding issues with the project, including land allocated during the Left Front regime, which promoted multiple JV real estate companies with several private realtors, including Shrachi.

Following the change in political landscape in Bengal in 2011, the Trinamul Congress shied away from promoting real estate JVs and no new land has been allocated since then.

“There are few things which worked out in our favour recently. We have been able to sell some of the old stocks releasing cash. Moreover, some of the barriers impeding the projects were crossed,” Todi said. Additionally, bankers are now more willing than before to lend to realtors helping them secure funds, he added.

Launched a decade ago, the 200-acre Renaissance Township in Burdwan, has recently seen spurt in sales, which Todi attributed to the pandemic driven urge to own home and live amidst open spaces. The group managed to sell over Rs 450 crore worth of old stocks from existing projects, half of which came from this township.

Buoyed by the response, it plans to launch another 50 acre parcels for development which will include luxury pool villas and premium bungalows.

The group, once known for Shravan Todi’s uncanny knack of identifying land, which was later used for real estate purposes during the Left Front era, is looking for new land parcels and it will consider participating in auctions being conducted by the Mamata Banerjee-government to buy plots.

Part of the Rs 1,000 crore Shrachi Group, which is also present in the engineering sector through BTL EPC Ltd, Shrachi Realty is a partner in some of Calcutta’s well-known residential developments such as South City and Urbana.