Mumbai: National Textile Corp. Ltd (NTC) may put 10.4 acres (4.2 ha) in central Mumbai back on the market in the city’s largest land sale in 17 months, three people familiar with the matter said.
Another try: NTC’s Finlay Mill property at Parel in Mumbai. Kunal Patil / HT
New Delhi-based NTC last month rejected two bids for the land because the state-run company expects to raise more funds, one of the people said on Wednesday, declining to be named as he isn’t authorized to comment on the sale. That was NTC’s second attempt this year to sell the site of a defunct mill.
Textile minister Dayanidhi Maran said on 6 August that NTC may raise more money by delaying the sale as property prices recover. Mumbai, the nation’s commercial capital, has the lowest office-vacancy rates among India’s biggest cities. Developers have started raising prices in some parts, after dropping them by as much as 25%, Abhishek Kiran Gupta, head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, said in an email last month.
Lodha Group last month raised its offer for the land to Rs710 crore to meet the minimum price sought, from a 16 July bid of Rs658 crore. Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd bid Rs520 crore.
NTC’s sale is likely to be the city’s biggest since the government sold land to Jet Airways (India) Ltd for Rs826 crore in March 2008, according to data from Knight Frank India Pvt. Ltd. The land may be used to develop 56,928m of space for hotels, offices and homes.
NTC chairman K. Ramachandran Pillai didn’t return phone calls to his office on Wednesday.