Builder appointed to redevelop Kurla’s Taximen’s Colony despite alleged lack of quorum at SGM

A SGM in Mumbai's Taximen Colony appointed Sayba Spaces for redevelopment amid protests over transparency and quorum issues, sparking faction clashes.

MUMBAI: Amid a heavy police and private security presence, a Special General Meeting (SGM) was held on Sunday at the Bombay Taximens Colony at Kurla to appoint a builder for redevelopment. The meeting, which went on from 5 pm to 10 pm, saw the appointment of Sayba Spaces, a firm in which Nitesh Singh, a BJP corporator and son of BJP MLC Rajhans Singh, is a partner. Residents claimed that the SGM was held despite a quorum.

Spread over 8.5 acres at the entrance of the plush Bandra-Kurla Complex, the colony has 686 tenements, including 30 commercial spaces, in its 29 buildings.

The meeting witnessed a clash between two factions, with the opposing one boycotting it on grounds of lack of transparency and the allegedly unfair process adopted to appoint Sayba Spaces. The other two companies who have submitted bids are Chandak Properties and Runwal Developers.

Spread over 8.5 acres at the entrance of the plush Bandra-Kurla Complex, the colony has 686 tenements, including 30 commercial spaces, in its 29 buildings. It is a prime piece of real estate due to its proximity to the central business district where the terminal station of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train is shaping up. This is the fifth redevelopment attempt in the colony in the last 21 years.

At the SGM, Sayba Spaces was presented as the only builder, which infuriated the dissenting group. “The SGM violated many provisions of the law. To begin with, it lacked a quorum, making the decision null and void,” said Girish Mishra, one of the managing committee members who challenged the process, citing transparency and fair process issues. “For the resolution to be passed, 487 of the 686 members needed to have been present. But there were about 300 residents who boycotted the meeting.”

Anees Ahmed Siddique, another resident, told Hindustan Times that he was manhandled a week earlier for opposing the manner in which the process was mishandled and local builder Sayba Spaces was being favoured. One of the examples he cited was non-submission of the company’s solvency certificate, which the competing companies have.

Shaikh Ghulam Jilani, another resident, said that Sayba Spaces was paying a lower rent, corpus and bank guarantee than the other two companies. Besides, it was unfairly permitted by the managing committee to revise its extra carpet area offer to 102% after it learned what the competition had quoted. Residents also allege that the project management consultant had a commercial interest in Sayba Spaces, as the two have collaborated for other projects within Kurla.

When contacted, BJP corporator and Sayba Spaces partner Nitesh Singh told Hindustan Times that it was the colony’s managing committee that was supposed to respond, and his company had complied with the conditions stated in the tender. When the society’s chairman, Anwar Qureshi, was approached, he too refused to comment as well as divulge if a resolution had been passed to appoint Sayba Spaces despite the lack of a quorum.

The Bombay Taximen’s Union began building the Taximen’s Colony close to the Mithi river in Kurla. It was inaugurated by union leader George Fernandes in 1972. Though called the Bombay Taximens Colony, only a fraction of taxi owners and drivers reside here now. Previous revamp attempts were made in 2005, 2008, 2013 and 2018, in which developers such as D B Realty, the Narang Group and Super Construction bagged the redevelopment rights; however, the projects never took off for varied reasons.

Nitesh Singh told HT that he planned to build a combination of residential and commercial spaces on the plot.