MMRDA banks on land bank to meet expenses

The cash rich Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) have announced their annual expenditure, on Tuesday. However, the authority is depending on majorly on their land bank and income from selling or leasing land as a source of revenue to meet these expenses.

“Our major source of revenue is through land bank as we do not get any revenue like taxes or toll collection from any source like the local bodies” said SVR Srinivas, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner.

MMRDA has been facing an issue, as it has not been able to sell any of their land in the last two years barring the plot for the iconic tower at Wadala that was purchased by Lodha group for Rs 4053 crores. However, the possession of land has not been given to the builders as of now as it houses the manufacturing beds for girders used for Metro railways. Once the possession is given, the builder would start paying the money in installments.

Another issue faced by MMRDA is the plot that was sold to the Jet Airways, as they have not paid a single penny since the deal was closed.

In some of the previous auctions MMRDA has not found takers for its land due to the increasing inflation and global economic meltdown. Other than the land bank the only source of revenue for MMRDA would be the grant from the Central government as revenue from Metro and Monorail would be starting only after 2011.

The revenue from advertisement on the skywalks is also very low than the authority had expected. However, the authority is hopeful and optimistic about changing their financial position this year and is claiming land deals would be taking place. “ We would be selling our land through auction in this financial year and we hope a lot of revenue is generated through land sale in Wadala as its market price is very high” said Srinivas.

Sources from MMRDA also said that one of these declared land deals could be seen in the first quarter of 2011.