Real estate developer Nirmal Lifestyle Ltd plans to build five integrated townships costing about $5 billion (Rs20, 300 crore) in 10 years. The firm, which has developed a township, and residential and retail projects in the city, said three of the townships will be in Mumbai, and one each in Pune and Indore. Each of the projects will include an IT special economic zone, and will have about 20 million sq. ft each. The company is finalizing the land acquisition for these projects. They plan to fund the land acquisition through internal accruals. For each city, they will also look at partners but that will only be on maturity of the project. They 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 SA. 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.