|
INDIA
BUSINESS WORLD -
JANUARY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS
SUPREME COURT CLEARS NTC MILL LAND SALE
The Supreme Court cleared the sale of National Textile Corporation's five mills in Mumbai to private developers. A division Bench of Justices S B Sinha and P A Naolekar allowed NTC to ‘create third party interests' on the 50-acre land which was sold to five different bidders in a high-profile auction last year.
However, the court has not delivered any order on whether a number of private textile companies can go ahead with developing surplus properties for commercial and residential purposes. A final written order on this is likely soon.
The SC nod now will help the developers to carry out construction activities. The state-owned corporation last year sold five mills namely, Jupiter, Mumbai Textile, Apollo, Elphinstone and Kohinoor for a total of Rs 2,020 crore through an auction process. “Today's directive has come as a big relief to the NTC. The Rs 2,020 crore we earned from the sale now belongs to us,” KR Pillai, chairman and MD, NTC, said.
In a number of landmark real estate deals, the Delhi-based construction major DLF and Akruti Nirman group had bought Mumbai Textile mill (17 acres) for Rs 702 crore, India Bulls acquired Jupiter Mills (14 acres) for Rs 276 crore while the Raj Thackeray and Unmesh Joshi combine took over Kohinoor Mills (4.8 acres) for Rs 421 crore.
Gagan Banga, executive director of IndiaBulls, said that the judgement allowed third party rights on the sale of these lands implying that they could now be taken up for redevelopment.
|
