Long wait for 2nd Nariman Point gets longer

New investors won8217;t touch it with a barge-pole and even government departments desperate for breathing space have not yet got their projects underway due to the litigation planners invited over the Coastal Regulation Zone notification. Those who had steered clear are now thanking their good fortunes and are looking to destinations like the Andheri-Saki Naka and Worli-Parel belts, which are the latest addresses for corporates to open shop. However, government-owned financial institutions, which had already invested about Rs 3,000 crore in construction and do not have any exit option, have no choice but to inject additional funds to make their investments worthwhile.

8220;Property prices have plunged to Rs 4,500 per sq ft from Rs 12,000 per sq ft in 1994. The economic slowdown, steady decline in the stock market and the development of the Andheri-Saki Naka industrial belt are the main reasons why speculators have shunned the Bandra Kurla complex,8221; says Akshay Kumar, chief executive officer of Colliers Jardine, the international real estate firm.

Some, however, are still looking for an escape chute like Vyasa Bank and Global Trust Bank, which have been pressuring the Mumbai Metropolitain Development Authority MMRDA, the complex8217;s planning body, to buy back the land their purchased 8212; at original prices.

Indian Hotels, operators of the Taj group, decided to forfeit its Rs 5-crore deposit instead of building a brand new hotel-cum-convention complex. But the dream mega-project, the Bharat Diamond Bourse, remains only a paper fantasy due to friction among its promoters. In fact, barring, ICICI and Citibank, no one has shifted to the complex in the last nine years, when the MMRDA had begun to market plots.

According to the MMRDA8217;s original plan, the Bandra-Kurla Complex was divided into nine blocks. At a floor space Index FSI of 2 was offered for commercial users and 1.5 for residential ones. The complex was to also generate 1.26 lakh jobs and 19,335 dwellings units. Departments of Mantralaya, the Council Hall, high court, police headquarters, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Central Excise, Attorney-General8217;s Office, offices housed in the old and new CGO complexes, the Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India and financial institutions were to be accommodated. However, both the Union and state governments have not evinced any interest in shifting to the Bandra Kurla Complex.

The first major roadblock was the complex itself, built around 1991 on reclaimed land. Environmental activists led by former Union minister Maneka Gandhi moved the Bombay High Court alleging that any reclamation carried out by the MMRDA there after 1991 violated the CRZ notification. Citing reports of the National Environmental Engineering Institute, a government institution, the petition alleged that about 280 hectares had been reclaimed illegally from the Mithi creek. Even after the petition was filed, 68 hectares had been illegally developed between 1994-98, environmentalists pointed out. Though the court finally gave the complex a green signal, the litigation pulled back the completion of many projects by five to 10 years.

A committee appointed by the court, however, extracted an assurance from the MMRDA that plots earmarked for a railway station, utility complex, office and residential buildings in the G8217; block plan, which lie within 100 metres from the edge of the Mithi river, will not be allotted or built upon without the prior clearance of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Similarly, various infrastructure projects such as the Bandra-Kurla rail link, bridges between the G8217; and H8217; blocks and the Worli-Bandra sea link passing through A8217; block, could not proceed without similar clearance.

Bourse without the sparkle

The newly constituted managing committee is however keen to begin trading by December 2002, but members, already well-entrenched in their South Mumbai offices, are not willing to shell out extra funds to restart the much-delayed work. The project was to house more than 2,500 diamond firms dealing in assorting, polishing, brokering and exporting diamonds.