Nirmal Lifestyle plans $5 bln investment for townships

MUMBAI, May 5 (Reuters) - Real estate developer Nirmal Lifestyle said on Monday it plans to set up five integrated townships at a cost of about $5 billion over 10 years.

The Mumbai-based firm, which has developed a township as well as residential and retail projects in the city, said three of the proposed townships will be in Mumbai, and one each in Pune and Indore.

"We are finalising the land acquisition for these projects, and will start work on two of them by the fourth quarter of this fiscal," Chairman Dharmesh Jain told Reuters.

Each of the projects will include an Information Technology Special Economic Zone, and will yield total developable area of about 20 million sq ft each, he said.

"We will be able to fund the land acquisition through internal accruals. For each city we will also look at partners, but that will only be on maturity of the project," Jain said.

"We also plan to go public in the next 12-18 months."

Nirmal is currently developing a 3 million sq ft shopping mall in Mumbai and a 1,080-room hotel project, jointly with France's Accor (ACCP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).

Real estate developers in India have rushed to set up industrial zones and townships in the last few years due to easier investment rules and rising demand for homes and offices in its booming eceonomy. (Reporting by Prashant Mehra; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)