Mumbai : Despite its poor financial stability, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, which has a mega project on its plate after a gap of some years, will not be opting to sell off its limited land bank in the city to raise finances. However, it plans to commercially utilise a parcel of land in South Mumbai, and also its 24 land parcels along with Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
“Commercial utilisation is an option, but we will not sell of land parcel as there is no immediate need. Even CIDCO, which has a large land bank of over Rs 10,000 crore, sells land worth around Rs 2,000 a year, depending on their need,” said Radheshyam Mopalwar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, MSRDC. In the city, MSRDC has land parcels at Napean Sea Road, Bandra, near the Bandra-end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
The cash-strapped Corporation, which lost out on many crucial infrastructure projects that it was implementing, including the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the Sea Links, the passenger water transport project, etc, due to its weak financial health, now, has the 800-km Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communications Expressway to execute.
Apart from this the MSRDC has few more projects in the pipeline which are in various stages of obtaining clearances from the authorities concerned. “For the projects that we have in hand, we will seek loans from international financial institutions, and raise bonds,” he added.
Meanwhile, the MSRDC is commercially exploiting its Napean Sea Road land. It plans to redevelop its 35,000 sq mt plot into a swanky headquarters. According to senior MSRDC officials, the corporation will appoint a private player to construct nearly 15 lakh sq.feet built up area.
The Corporation after a nod from the cabinet will float tenders for appointing consultants for redeveloping the Napean Sea Road plot. “We will get a new office for us at Napean Sea Road, and in exchange, the private builder can utilise a part of the plot commercially,” a senior MSRDC official said. MSRDC wants to adopt a similar model to commercially utilise its land parcels along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
