Kolkata

It’s a gold mine out there, and everybody wants to rake in the moolah. EM Bypass has seen a spurt in land prices since the mid-’80s. And the nature of land, too, has changed over the years to enable the agencies concerned to maximize their earnings from these plots. Less than a decade ago, KMDA and KMC entered into joint venture partnerships with private developers to offer housing projects off EM Bypass based on the public-private-partnership model.

With the city witnessing a real estate boom in the next few years and land prices soaring, the agencies gave priority to the more lucrative commercial ventures over housing projects. KMC and KMDA made a killing by auctioning plots along the Bypass until the global economic meltdown slowed things down in 2008. KMDA earned over Rs. 640 crore by selling land off EM Bypass and Salt Lake, while KMC made more than Rs. 500 crore. What’s more, both the agencies have some more land left to mop up another Rs 1,000 crore.

While KMDA has plans to set up a business park at Nonadanga on around 100 acres, KMC, too, has some land left to sell. However, in view of the ongoing EM Bypass land controversy, the plans seem to have been put on the back burner. Much of the land originally belonged to the state refugee, relief and rehabilitation department. KMDA and KMC acquired the plots from the department through requisition a long time ago. Several acres were acquired for development purposes, but the authorities later utilized them for commercial ventures as the real estate sector witnessed high growth.

According to KMDA’s land use records, the agency sold nearly 2,000 acres it had on EM Bypass, Salt Lake, Baishnabghata-Patuli, Garia, Sonarpur and other places in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area over the last couple of decades.

While it was in the last decade that KMDA and KMC decided to use the Bypass land for commercial purposes, the idea was conceived in the ’90s. KMC had planned to hand over an 8-acre plot on a 33-year lease to a private developer at Rs. 15.73 crore per acre. Though the plot was given to a hotel group in 1995 at Rs. 10.86 crore per acre, the market value was hovering at Rs. 22 crore per acre. So, the civic authorities decided to take the land back to reap the benefits of the higher price.

In 2005, KMDA struck gold by selling a 6.2-acre plot along EM Bypass for a whopping Rs. 209 crore to real estate major Emaar-MGF for a five-star hotel project. Then, in 2007, KMC sold a 5-acre plot opposite Science City for Rs. 176 crore, or Rs. 35 crore an acre. KMDA had formed a bulk land committee in the ’80s to determine land prices, particularly in east Kolkata and Baishnabghata-Patuli. Plots were sold to several private firms and individuals, including well-known sportspersons.

In the ’80s, KMDA used to sell each cottah of residential and commercial land for Rs.2 lakh and Rs. 2.5 lakh, respectively. The price increased in the ’90s, when the authorities started selling a cottah of residential and commercial land for Rs. 3 lakh and Rs. 3.5-4 lakh, respectively. After 2000, KMDA fixed a price of Rs. 5 lakh per cottah for residential plots and Rs. 5.6-6 lakh for commercial ones.

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