Commerce minister Kamal Nath with UAE Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in New Delhi on Monday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, March 26: India and the United Arab Emirates today talked serious business that will pave the way for a huge flow of petro dollars into the Indian realty sector and see substantial domestic investment going to the UAE.

DLF, Videocon and the Hinduja group today held discussions and signed agreements with state-runs firms of UAE in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of UAE.

While DLF floated a 50:50 venture with Dubai-based Al Nakheel to develop two townships, the Hinduja group is interested in property development in the Gulf. Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja flaghip, has signed an agreement to explore investment opportunities in the automobile sector in Dubai. The Videocon group is also planning to set up a manufacturing unit for consumer durables in Dubai.

The DLF-Al Nakheel combine plans to set up two townships of 20,000 acres each, one around Delhi and the other near Mumbai.

“According to our plan, the first phase will be completed in the next three years with an investment of about $10 billion,” said a DLF official. The work on the project will start this year and is likely to be completed by 2013.

“Some of the land needed for the township would come from the existing land bank of DLF, while the rest is being bought directly from farmers,” said the official.

The Hinduja group said it plans to invest over Rs 5,500 crore in healthcare in India and property development in UAE. The group signed separate agreements with UAE’s state-run firms to pursue the development of commercial properties and resorts in the Gulf, besides setting up medi-cities, hospitals and day care centres in India.

It entered into a joint venture with Limitless LLC, a subsidiary of Dubai World, for healthcare business and plans to invest around Rs 4,400 crore in the next two to three years. The project involves setting up of medi-cities in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad with about 2,000 beds.

The investment will be made through Hinduja TMT, said Hinduja group chairman (India) Ashok P. Hinduja.

Meanwhile, Ashok Leyland managing director R. Seshasayee signed an MoU with Dubai World chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem to explore opportunities in Dubai.

Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot said, “We have been invited by the Prime Minister of UAE to set up a unit in Dubai. We will go there next week to discuss details.”

India and UAE will also co-operate in regulating cross-border trading in the capital markets. An agreement for this purpose was signed between the two regulators — Sebi and Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority.