MEGA seeks to acquire 430 acres of land for metro project

The official said MEGA (Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar & Ahmedabad Company Ltd) plans to acquire parcels of land that fall alongside the proposed metro corridor. Over 230 acres of the land proposed to be acquired will be government-owned land.

MEGA is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) incorporated by the state government to implement the metro rail project.

“The proposal has been approved and a decision taken by the high-powered committee of chief secretary to hand over possession of the identified land to MEGA,pending finalisation of terms,” the official added.

Earlier,the metro project was touted by the state government as “zero land acquisition project”.

Over 30 hectares of land has already been reserved for “real estate equity”,which according to the officials,will act as a buffer for the project that has already seen several cost over-runs in the last few years.

“Most of the land will be used to fund at least 30% of the Rs 6,000-crore equity that has to come from the state government. The land will be developed and sold by MEGA,” the official said adding that a similar model of funding the project was also followed by DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) where initial project cost was generated through property development on lands transferred to DMRC for the project.

The proposal also talks about a higher FSI (Floor Space Index) to be provided along the metro corridor to encourage high-density commercial and residential development alongside the metro network and better realisation of real estate values.