This narrow industrial belt, demarcated by the city planners for environment-friendly units, has more to offer than mere good looks. In a recession-hit real estate market, in which even prime area rates have fallen by over 40 per cent in the last 18 months, industrial plots and sheds have not seen a drastic decline.

"Rates have fallen marginally due to the tight money market position", says Mangat Rai, a property dealer. Though there are not many buyers in the market, especially for the two kanal and large plots, prices have declined only by two to three per cent, he claims.

Plots in Phase I and Phase II, demarcated by CITCO and UT Estate office respectively nearly 15 years ago, have always been in great demand. Very few plots come up for sale and, whenever they do, they are quickly taken by industrialists and entrepreneurs because of the sheer advantage the area offers. Power and water are cheaper and less problematic than in Haryana and Punjab. Tax benefits also exist.

In fact, on some items excise and sales tax is lower than even Punjab, says Mangat Rai. Entrepreneurs, therefore, prefer this location over the sheds and plots available in Panchkula and Mohali. However, the lack of a transfer policy for the sheds affects the resale market though the UT Administration is actively considering a transfer policy for sheds. Deals are now made on power of attorney and the association has been demanding sale rights for long. All leasehold sheds, whether in Phase I or II, have a condition of non transferability, so disputes arise in both letting it out and selling , says Ranjan, an entrepreneur who operates out of a rented shed. Sharing of a shed by two or more tenants is also not allowed. Hence, operators with small budgets cannot function from here, he says. Besides the sheds and plots in Phase I and II, several four kanal and two kanal plots demarcated by the UT Administration have become the subject of legal wrangling.

These plots, allotted in a green belt area by oversight, are under dispute in the High Court since several allottees have refused to accept the two kanal for four kanals and one kanal for two kanal plots offered by the Administration in lieu of the original allotment.

While Chandigarh has survived the bottomed out market, it is Panchkula which has failed to take off as an alternative site for industrial plot- seekers. Except for some enterprising persons, who have converted land taken for industrial purposes to construct massive bungalows, the plots here do not even fetch the government rate. The last few years have seen only a couple of registrations, say brokers. The best location in Phase I and II does not fetch over Rs 16 lakh for a 1200 sq yard plot. The official rate of a constructed shed on 1200 sq yards is around Rs 20 lakh. Thus, the buyer is nearly absent from the scene. Bargains can also be picked up for around Rs 12 lakh to Rs 14 lakh for slightly smaller plots, say dealers.

The satellite town has been without an industrial or transfer policy and has the added disadvantage of higher power tariff. Also, as in Chandigarh, multiple tenants in a single holding are not allowed.

The market is slightly better in Mohali as power and infrastructure problems are less than in Panchkula. Barring some property, the plots and sheds are mostly transferable. The going rate for a two kanal plot in Mohali is Rs 25 lakh. A one kanal plot fetches between Rs 14 and Rs 16 lakh.

While Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali have not seen a price crash, Delhi and Gurgaon have been hit real hard. With industrial plots in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, finding it tough to find tenants at even the slashed rates of Rs 30 to 40 per sq foot, prices too have taken a tumble. This industrial- cum- commercial area during its good days had attracted rents as high Rs 80 per sq foot.

The situation is no better in prime areas like Connaught Place and Nehru Place. Excellent business addresses like Gopaldass Towers and Ambadeep are now available at rental rates of Rs 100 to Rs 120 per sq yard. At one time, the minimum rental was Rs 180 per sq foot, says Deepak Chadha, a real estate agent in the Capital.

Several major companies, which were setting up new offices, shifted to Gurgaon. This led to prices falling to less than half of the Rs 220 per sq foot in areas like Nehru Place. Chadha and other dealers in the Capital claim that this is the best time to buy as the market is set to recover early next year.

The Razangla battle

By Harwant Singh

ON October 20, 1962, the Chinese launched a full-scale attack on 7 Infantry Brigade, stretched as it was along the Namka Chu river in the Kaming division of North West Frontier Agency (NEFA), later renamed Arunachal Pradesh, and made rapid progress. However, in the Ladakh sector, nothing much happened during the next few weeks except that some of the forward Indian posts were driven back, though there were unmistakable signs of a build-up of forces.

114 Infantry Brigade had been tasked to defend the gateway to the Indus Valley at Chushul. The brigade had occupied defences on the heights dominating the Chushul plain and its airfield. It is a vast area and consequently the defences were widely separated with the companies occupying isolated positions, resulting in the break-up of the only artillery battery into troop deployment. One of the forward and important features called Razangla was occupied by a company of 13 Kumaon, commanded by Maj Shaitan Singh.

He must have been a very naughty child for his parents to have named him Shaitan Singh. In later years, he grew up to be a sombre, God-fearing, serious-minded officer, a bit shy and unassuming. He took keen interest in the training and welfare of his men. He came from a military family, with his father having risen to the rank of a Colonel in the army.

Consequently, by training and tradition, he was imbued with a high sense of duty and responsibility and his character moulded to measure up to the trials and tribulations that lay ahead.

Razangla is a rocky area in the desolate, barren and cold desert of Ladakh and an important post for the attacker to take before making any move towards the plains of Chushul. Its height is over 17,000 feet and dominates the surrounding area, thus making it a vital feature for the defender to hold.

Equally, there was no better man to defend this outpost than Major Shaitan Singh. Both his commanding officer and the brigade commander (also from the Kumaon Regiment) knew that the enemy will require some considerable effort to dislodge him from Razangla.

Finally on the night of December 18, 1962, the Chinese made their move around mid-night. The attack opened with a heavy barrage of artillery and mortar fire supported by medium machine guns. Shaitan Singh’s men were ill-clad for the freezing winter of Ladakh, their weapons were outdated and ammunition limited with no artillery support worth the name.

Frozen earth made digging very difficult and the defender had based his defences mostly on Sangars. Notwithstanding all that, these gallant men of Kumoan hills met the overwhelming enemy onslaught head-on.

Shaitan Singh must have been the most inspiring figure in that unequal fight; for his men fought to the last while he himself kept moving to wherever the situation was found getting out of control.

Shaitan Singh was seriously wounded in the legs and stomach, yet he declined to be evacuated by his men and decided to fight to the finish. All this time, the battle raged with unabated fury. Some of the section posts changed hands many times. With the ammunition exhausted the fighting took its most primitive and brutal form, that is hand-to-hand fighting with the Kumaonis refusing to yield ground.

Before dawn could break on the Ladakh hills, silence descended at Razangla. The last of the men of that gallant company had fallen at their post. When all had been lost, three badly wounded men who had survived the fighting decided to evacuate Shaitan Singh, who by now was totally incapacitated. They carried him some distance, but the task was too much for the already weakened men.

Realising their state and the problem they were having in evacuating him, Shaitan Singh ordered his men to leave him to his fate and find their way to the battalion headquarters. Reclining against the rock, Shaitan Singh must have slowly bled and frozen to death, and that is the position in which they found him next summer.

Out of this gallant company of nearly 120 men, only these three seriously wounded soldiers came back to give the details of this heroic battle.

The Chinese had suffered heavy casualties and the momentum of their offensive in the Ladakh sector had been effectively checked by these handful of Kumaonis under that gallant company commander. Thereafter, the Chinese made no serious effort to push their drive towards the Chushul plain.

While military observers were stunned at the collective bravery of these men and that of Shaitan Singh, Joe Das, an authority on military history, drew a parallel between the battle of Razangla and the battle of Thermopyalae.

Next summer, when Razangla was revisited, Major Shaitan Singh’s body was found where the three men said they had left him. At Razangla, the spread of dead bodies of the Kumaonis, with some still clutching their weapons and from the type and extent of their wounds one could picture the desperate nature of the struggle and the bravery of the men of 13 Kumaon.

Major Shaitan Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra (posthumous) for valour.