MMRDA puts BKC plot auction on back-burner

After several failed attempts to auction its plot in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to auction it only after the proposed Metro corridors and International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) are in place. This, MMRDA says, would add value to the plot after the surplus infrastructure is in place.

Owing to uncertainty in the real estate market and the Bombay high court’s direction to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) not to permit any new construction in the city, the MMRDA had, in August, withdrawn the bidding process for the auction of a 12,500-square-metre plot at ‘G’ Block in BKC with 50,000-square-metre built-up area.

The Bombay high court in February directed the BMC not to give permission to any new construction of commercial or residential buildings in the city till the rules of solid waste management are complied with.

Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “Looking at our current financial condition, we are not in desperate need of funding for upcoming projects. At the moment, we have enough funds to take off the proposed metro projects for which the state government will fund civil works. The need for funds would arise at a later stage and that would be a good time to auction the plots at BKC considering factors like surplus infrastructure coming up at BKC with the Metro corridors and the IFSC, which would only add value to the plot and could result in us fetching more than what we were quoting.”

The MMRDA’s last successful land parcel auction was back in 2007 after which the authority’s attempt to sell a plot in the same block at `3 lakh per square metre did not get any bidders. The MMRDA had later decided that it would not put any of its plots on auction.