After the Dharavi slum redevelopment project, billionaire Gautam Adani’s group has emerged as the highest bidder for the Rs 36,000 crore redevelopment of Motilal Nagar in Mumbai, sources said.
Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters
Motilal Nagar I, II & III is one of Mumbai’s biggest housing redevelopment projects, covering 143 acres in western suburb of Goregaon (W).
Adani Properties Pvt Ltd (APPL) emerged as the highest bidder, offering more built-up area than its nearest rival, L&T, sources aware of the matter said.
Letter of Allotment (LoA) will be issued in due course.
This will be the second mega redevelopment project of Adani Group in Mumbai.
It is already redeveloping Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums in Mumbai.
Adani Group did not offer any comments on the story.
Bombay high court last week gave Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) a go-ahead to redevelop Motilal Nagar through a construction and development agency (C&DA).
The state government has declared it as a ‘special project’, with MHADA retaining control over it but working through a C&DA in absence of the necessary potential to accomplish the work, based on economic viability and its capability.
In Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (now called Navbharat Mega Developers Pvt Ltd), Adani Group held an 80 per cent stake while the rest was with the state government.
Under the Dharavi project, Adani plans to turn 620 acres of prime land, about three-quarters of the size of New York’s Central Park, into a glitzy urban hub.
About 1 million people live in rickety shanties with open sewers and shared toilets in the densely populated slums, close to Mumbai’s international airport.
Eligible residents will be given flats of up to 350 square feet free of cost as part of the $3 billion redevelopment of rubbish-strewn Mumbai slum of Dharavi into a ‘world-class’ district.
It will look to turn Motilal Nagar into modern apartments.
The total estimated redevelopment cost of Motilal Nagar is around Rs 36,000 crore, and the rehabilitation period is seven years from the project start/commencement date.
As per tender conditions for Motilal Nagar redevelopment, C&DA must give a housing stock of 3.83 lakh square meters.
APPL won the bid by agreeing to hand over 3.97 lakh sq mt to MHADA.
The other qualified bidder, L&T quoted the figure of 2.6 lakh sq mt.
MHADA retains full control over the project, including ownership of the land.
It tendered for the redevelopment due to its own financial and technical limitations in handling such a large-scale redevelopment.
Sources said the project aims to eliminate illegal construction and create a planned, well-integrated community in a holistic manner.
The private developer cannot mortgage the land, raise finance on it, or sell/transfer rights without MHADA’s permission, according to the tender conditions.
This protects MHADA residents, slum dwellers and prevents misuse of redevelopment right.
The selected C&DA will be responsible for the entire redevelopment process, including design, approvals, construction, infrastructure development, and rehabilitation.
The project will rehabilitate 3,372 residential units eligible under MHADA, 328 eligible commercial units and 1,600 eligible slum tenements as per the 1971 Slum Act.
Last week, the Bombay High Court’s division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Bharati Dangre upheld MHADA’s decision to carry out redevelopment through C&DA for integrated development of the whole layout.
The court observed that each cooperative society would look solely to the personal interest of itself and its members and likely appoint a developer to undertake a narrow and limited development of its land/buildings.
This would not be in the interest of orderly planning and infrastructural development.
It would also expose each society and its occupants to the exigencies of commercial developments by developers.
It added that only holistic redevelopment can provide a long-term solution to the problem of flooding and waterlogging faced by the occupants of Motilal Nagar, which cannot be resolved by piecemeal redevelopment of separate parcels of land.
