Tuesday 20 November 2007

Mafatlal’s Byculla land sale likely to be delayed


MUMBAI: The proposed sale of Mafatlal Industries’ seven-acre land near Byculla zoo in central Mumbai is unlikely to be concluded anytime soon due to fear that the state government may scrap the policy of allowing extra floors if developers build public parking space in their residential projects.
Lodha Developers was the frontrunner to bag the land parcel with its Rs 1,200 crore bid against the reserve price of Rs 1,000 crore. However, there has been no discussion on the transaction for nearly three months as the state government is reviewing its floor space index (FSI) policy, a person close to development told ET.
“There is no clarity on parking FSI policy of the state government, it is being reviewed and most likely it will be scrapped,” the person said on condition of anonymity.
Implemented in April 2009, the parking FSI policy offered realtors extra FSI of maximum up to four floors, provided they constructed multi-storey parking facility on their land and handed it over to the civic administration free of cost.
Recently, opposition parties, social activists and town planning experts said the policy was being misused and most parking slots were approved only in central Mumbai. It was brought to the state government’s notice that more than 20,000 car-parking slots were approved in the central Mumbai’s Sewri, Worli and Lower Parel in just about an year’s time.
The government is now reviewing the policy and there is speculation that it may scrap the policy altogether, although there is no official word yet.
This has hit Mafatlal’s plans. “Earlier bids for Mafatlal’s Byculla land were completely based on the math of parking FSI, which is not going to be the case,” the person said. “Commercials of this deal will change substantially. If the deal gets concluded hereon, it will be at a much lower price,” he added.