NTC woes open real estate bonanza

A huge tract of land available for sale in the heart of Mumbai? Who has that kind of spare land? The National Textiles Corporation (NTC) whi...

A huge tract of land available for sale in the heart of Mumbai? Who has that kind of spare land? The National Textiles Corporation (NTC) which wants to part with surplus land owned by bleeding nationalised textile units here.

On sale in the open market are 15 NTC mills located in central Mumbai. There’s only one hurdle: municipal clearance under the Development Control Regulations. ‘‘It will result in real estate prices crashing,’’ predicts H. D. Mhabre, a real estate valuer on the panel of a housing finance company.

At present, commercial property is rated at Rs 3,000-Rs 3,500 per square feet in areas like Parel. A couple of mills are located on Senapati Bapat Road and Dadar, where the value is Rs 9,000- Rs 10,000 per square feet. The NTC’s reason for sale is simple. The accumulated losses of its two subsidiaries — NTC (Maharashtra North) Ltd and NTC (Maharashtra South) Ltd — has run into hundreds of crore.

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Already, the area is abuzz with corporate houses that have moved in recently, cheek by jowl with the chawls of workers who once worked here. Latest on the list are Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Orange, Met Life, DHL, ICICI Prudential, IDBI Bank and ABN Amro Bank, according to data from real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Research. The clack of looms has long given way to the whir of airconditioners, as private mill owners have sold their land to developers.

The NTC will get approximately 64 acres and will be compensated with equivalent floor space index (FSI) and transfer of development rights (TDR) by the authorities. According to an NTC source, the total market value of the surplus land the corporation can sell along with the extra FSI and TDR, could easily reach Rs 12,000 crore.

‘‘A recent intimation is that we should kick-start the whole process by the first week of June,’’ the source said. There are other roadblocks too. The mill workers and 2,000-odd tenants staying in NTC-held buildings are fighting their eviction notices. ‘‘The state government has promised us protection under rent control laws,’’ says Nimesh Mehta, vice president of Girni Chawl Bhadekaru Sangharsh Samiti.

Over 22,000 workers were employed in 25 mills at the end of 2002. Of them, the employees of 15 mills will be offered a voluntary retirement scheme. Trade unions are also opposing the sale. ‘‘Does the NTC really want to revive the rest of the mills in Mumbai? We doubt it,’’ Datta Iswalkar of Band Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti, a union cobbled together by mill workers, says. The only authorised union, the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh, has signed a pact with NTC to participate in a revival package without raising a single query.