Mumbai-based real estate giant The Phoenix Mills Ltd has emerged the highest bidder for a 5.6-acre plot in southwest Kolkata’s Alipore, offering to pay as much as Rs 400 crore for the land in the city’s most coveted neighbourhood.
Phoenix’s offer of about Rs 71 crore an acre will count as one of the highest the city has ever seen for a land parcel, highlighting the undying allure of Alipore as Kolkata’s most upscale locality.
If approved by the state government, the Mumbai realtor would get the land on Judges Court Road for a 99-year lease and it would be free to build residential or commercial complexes.
The area, part of Alipore Green City Development Project, can have about a million square feet of built-up space.
The company declined to comment on the development as it has not been officially announced by the state government.
Debashis Sen, managing director of the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) which carried the e-auction for the plot, confirmed a Mumbai realtor has won the bid but declined to name it.
“We have received more than the base price we had set for the 5.6-acre plot that went for e-auction on Thursday. A Mumbai-based company has emerged as the top bidder, but I will not name who won the bid and how much money they quoted,” Sen said at a seminar organised by the CII on Friday.
If ratified by the state, this would be Phoenix’s second venture in Kolkata. Last year, it had picked up 7.48 acres for a mall at the Judges Court Road-Diamond Harbour Road crossing for Rs 300 crore in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP).
Sources said there were four companies in the fray for the plot, two from Kolkata and two from Mumbai.
“Companies like them want clean land from the government and they went aggressive with the bid,” said one of the participants in the bid.
However, more opportunities for the local and national developers would be coming up as the state government plans to auction four more land parcels, totalling 11 acres, in Alipore.
These include a plot near the Alipore jail and a land parcel on the Bengal Government (BG) Press premises, also in Alipore.
The state will also put under the hammer some plots off EM Bypass in east Kolkata and one in Tollygunge in the south.
“There is a 15.5-acre plot behind Silver Spring; a plot measuring 7.44 acres on BL Saha Road (Tollygunge); four plots measuring 28 acres in Nonadanga; and two more plots measuring 5 acres also in Nonadanga,” Sen said at the seminar.
The objective behind e-auctions is to generate revenue for the government, because of which the government is keeping minimum restrictions on land use.
Sen said there were chances that the four plots off EM Bypass and in Tollygunge would be auctioned as freehold land.
All the land parcels in Alipore will be auctioned as leasehold land. In the Alipore land parcel that went for e-auction on Thursday, the state government did not put any condition on the use of the land.
The bidder is free to use the land to build residential apartments or commercial complexes or a mix of both.
Sen said a similar approach was most likely to be adopted when the other land parcels were put for e-auction.
“We will go for the e-auctions only after making sure that we have done the mutation and all other necessary things that bidders check before bidding. Our objective is to monetise the land parcels and we want the best bidders to participate,” Sen said.
