The city stands to gain from the Union Cabinet’s decision to approve the transfer of land of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF) to the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), according to analysts.
The Cabinet has allowed the sale of the Transferable Development Right (TDR) certificate received against the transfer of the land.
‘On development path’
Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said, “This will pave the way for more development in the city, including road widening. Earlier too, when RCF gave up massive tracts of land, it was used for construction of the Eastern Freeway by the MMRDA and for road-widening projects by the MCGM.”
Mr. Puri said the company will also benefit from the decision to permit it to avail of a “construction bonanza as compensation”. The decision comes at a time when the public sector enterprise has initiated plans to unlock the value of its real estate assets of close to 300 acres out of its total 800 acres in the eastern suburbs, he said.
Interim relief
Analysts have said that the unlocking of land and the road-widening projects will give a push to infrastructure in a city bursting at the seams. In its Development Plan 2034, MCGM has shown a reservation of 331.96 sq. m. of RCF land in front of the proposed RCF township for public road widening.
The MMRDA had acquired 48,849.74 sq. m (8,265 sq. m unencumbered or free land, and 40,584.74 sq. m of encumbered land) of land from the RCF and completed the construction of the Eastern Freeway, which opened for public use in 2014. In November 2017, MMRDA issued a TDR certificate of 16,530 sq. m to the RCF against the unencumbered land, as interim relief.
The RCF’s claim for TDR against the encumbered land is being decided by an arbitrator.
For some time now, RCF has been asking the MCGM to delete the provisions for internal roads in its colony from the DP. But subsequently, the RCF agreed to hand over around 16,000 sq. m of land for construction of a 8.3-metre road in lieu of TDR as compensation, subject to mutually agreed terms and conditions.
