Cuffe Parade could get a New York like Central Park

The Central Park in NYC, one of the most filmed locations in the world, is spread over nearly 900 acres. Now, The BMC wants to build Mumbai’s largest park in south Mumbai, on the lines of the historic Central Park in New York City. The civic body has proposed to reclaim 300 acres off Cuffe Parade for the project. Interestingly, the biggest park spreading over 290 acres in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region which is in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai is also named the Central Park.

“It will be a recreational park, a much-needed green cover in south Mumbai. There will be no commercial usage of the space,” a senior civic official said. The Cuffe Parade park is proposed off GD Somani Marg. “The idea is to create a world-class recreational facility, and the administration has proposed it in the revised development control rules,” an official from the said a BMC official from the gardens department.

The civic officials however, admitted that even if the proposal is approved and the permissions are in order, it may take almost a decade or more for such a facility to come up. Mumbaikars should not fret because it took the New York City administration also, nearly 20 years to build the Central Park, which was officially completed in 1873.

The proposed project has not gone too well with the environmentalists, nonetheless, dispelling fears of the green brigade, senior civic officials said that the project was actually proposed way back in 1970, at the same location and they were keen on going ahead despite the chagrin.

Lottery results for 4,275 MHADA homes in MMR

MHADA, the apex public body constituted under the MHADA Act, was established in 1977 under the Housing Department Government of Maharashtra with a comprehensive approach to housing problem in the state. Every year, MHADA conducts a lottery under Konkan Housing and Area Development Board.

The result for the most recent lottery will be declared at Rang Sharda Auditorium in Bandra and will release 183 flats in Thane, 310 in Mira Road and 3,755 in Virar. 27 flats in Vengurla are also on MHADA’s list.

These flats range from Rs 4.37 lakh and go upto Rs 40.93 lakh. The apartments measure between 368 sq feet and 670 sq feet.

MHADA had received a great response from home buyers for this lottery when it was announced. Around 1, 34,124 people have applied for 4,275 homes in the three destinations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This highlights the demand for and requirement of affordable homes in Mumbai.

Check the results on www.mhada.maharashtra.gov.in

Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Despite being the most expensive property market in the country, Mumbai Metropolitan Region continues to be the prime market for attracting investor interest. Structured equity or debt was the preferred route of investment as the city received the major portion of private equity investments in the past year.

Out of the total Rs 19,500 crore, Mumbai received more than 1/3^rd or 34 % investments in the sector in 2015, showed a JLL India study. The city was followed by Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune receiving 29%, 14%, 11% and 5% respectively. Talking about this trend, Shobhit Agarwal, managing director-capital markets, at JLL India said, “The preference for these cities reflects learning from past experience. While investors remain cautious about which cities to invest in, what is interesting to observe is that the ratio of structured equity and debt was more than half of the total investments received.”

Rubi Arya, Executive Vice-Chairman, Milestone Capital Advisors anticipates equity deals to gain a foothold over the next two three years because of an expected increase in commercial  real estate funding due to instruments like real estate investment trusts. Arya said, “We have seen proven returns from such structures and will continue introducing products in this space for some more time. But from a safety viewpoint, structured debt will remain preferred route for investors.”

Core commercial assets are being preferred over asset classes such as residential, hospitality and retail for plain equity investments. The preference indicates how investors are circumspect despite being optimistic about major potential gains in real estate. Also, important has been the preference amongst investors to invest in projects of developers with a good track record and credibility.

While residential and office projects continue to be the focus for PE investors, entity-level investments and platform-level deals come into the limelight, indicating increase in investor confidence. The JLL report said that a total of Rs 6,048 crore worth of entity-level equity yes deals were witnessed. Deals such as Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus investing in Piramal Realty and Blackstone buying Alpha G:Corp aggregating to around Rs 4,000 crore were amongst the 10 entity-level investments witnessed in the year 2015.

In terms of asset focus, despite receiving a reasonable share of funding, residential projects have not received much from equity investment. At the same time, a significant sum of equity investments has been towards income-yielding office projects. Although residential and office will attract a majority of investments, retail is expected to soon gain a foothold in the market.

BKC Area

As per the response to an RTI query, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) would levy additional premium charges on Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) a company led by Mukesh Ambani for delay in development of a joint property in the posh BKC area. The amount of penalty would be Rs.341 crore for failing to develop the plot C 66 in the G-Block of BKC as a commercial building with car park within a stipulated period of four years. MMRDA informed that the amount has been due for the last 34 months.

An RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed a query with MMRDA wherein he sought details of the plot of the new business district in the central part of the megapolis. MMRDA said that plot No C-66, ad-measuring 10183.18 square metres, was leased to RIL on September 27, 2008 for Rs 918.03 crore and allowed development of 30,550 square metres of commercial space and 20,366 square metres for public parking. The RTI reply was furnished by an official of the Town Planning Division.

When RIL spokesperson was contacted, he informed that the construction is now almost complete except some final touches but blamed Raghuleela Builders Pvt. Ltd. (the developer) for the delay in construction. The developer has a tripartite agreement with MMRDA and RIL for development of the property.

RIL also argued that the delay in payment should not be termed as ‘default’ because as per the request for proposal (RFP), the developer can make the payment along with interest till the time he seeks occupation certificate (OC) or before the final completion certificate is granted. This is duly permitted by the MMRDA.

Besides One BKC, Reliance Industries is also building a huge convention centre in the business district, where it has developed a public park named “Jio Park” and was recently dedicated to the city.
Meanwhile, Galgali has demanded that MMRDA should issue a stop-work notice to RIL immediately and recover the additional premium first with interest and penalty. He said that he has written a letter to MAHA-CM Devendra Fadnavis as well as Metropolitan Commissioner U P S Madan over this blatant violation of rules and has demanded strict action against RIL.

There was no response to the query from Dilip Kawathkar, Joint director for projects at MMRDA.