Dedicated locality research platform

Bid for the Air India Building increased to 1,600cr

Source: ET Realty

The famous Air India Building located in Nariman Point, Mumbai has few takers. The building was first handed over in 1970 on a 99-lease by the state to the then government-controlled airlines. In February 2013, as part of its asset-monetisation strategy, Air India relocated its corporate headquarters to New Delhi and vacated the property. Even though Air India requested bids for the sale of the 23-story structure in 2018, so far there are no takers. To revive talks, the bid has now been raised to 1,600 crore rupees.

Last month, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that there was not enough room for the state administration to accommodate its offices in both Mantralaya and the annexe building and therefore request that the Mantralaya be expanded by the state into the Air India Building. After getting the go-ahead from chief minister Eknath Shinde, Fadnavis claims to have spoken with the minister of civil aviation and that chief secretary Manu Kumar Srivastav would shortly meet with ministry officials.

"When I saw Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in New Delhi, I asked him to give the state government of Mumbai the Air India building. The need for this structure stems from the fact that there is now not enough room for government offices, despite the Mantralaya and an annex building. When I was Chief Minister, we had submitted this plan. However, such suggestion was dropped in the interim. We kept in touch after that. The Reserve Bank and the Maharashtra government both currently demand this space, " tweeted Fadnavis

During the tenure of the MVA government, a prior state offer of Rs 1,450 crore was made. Air India officials told the state government that the structure was worth more than Rs 2,000 crore. The true cost would have been between Rs. 1,100 and Rs. 1,200 crore, but in 2018, the government recouped about Rs. 300 crores in debt from Air India. Under the MVA government, negotiations had picked back up, but no agreement had been reached.

© Propscience.com. All Rights Reserved.