Plot in land allotment row is prime real estate, 15 mins from Navi Mumbai airport

Residents say the land was supposed to be in green zone and part of 119-acre Central Park

Fifteen minutes from the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, next to Central Park and close to a golf course, the 24-acre plot in upmarket Kharghar that the Congress party has alleged was part of a land scam, is lucrative real estate in Navi Mumbai.

The plot at the centre of controversy at Sector-24, Kharghar in Navi Mumbai as seen on Saturday. (HT Photo)

“It is one of the best places to buy a house and this area is more in demand that Nerul and Panvel,” said Manohar Shroff, vice-president of Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI-CREDAI). Kharghar is one of the sought after nodes of Navi Mumbai due to its proximity to the proposed international airport. Shroff said that commercial price would in that neighbourhood should be between ₹8000- ₹9,000 per square foot. “However since it was agriculture plot, it would take at least ₹250 crore for the builder to convert [it] to Non-Agriculture (NA) plot,” he said, as a possible explanation for a concessional rate.

In November 2017, the Maharashtra government chose to allot 24 acres to eight farmers displaced by the Koyna dam project in Satara. This land is in a well-connected and rapidly-developing part of Kharghar in Navi Mumbai. As per the rules for allotment to families affected by irrigation projects, the land given to them is for agriculture. In May 2018, three days after the land was surveyed, the farmers sold the plot to private builders, Paradise Group.

According to the Congress, who raised questions about both the allotment and sale of this land earlier this month, Paradise Group bought the plot for ₹3.60 crore even though the market value is estimated to be ₹1,768 crore. In the Assembly, Congress alleged that this deal had the ‘blessings’ of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded Fadnavis’s resignation.

The chief minister has ordered a judicial probe into this sale as well as over 200 other land allotments to project affected persons. Until that report is submitted, the Kharghar plot will remain in limbo.

The Congress is not the only one to question the state’s decisions regarding these 24 acres because the plot is prime real estate. The area is already famous because of an ISCKON temple and also has a golf course nearby. The proposed Navi Mumbai airport is just 15 minutes away and this distance will be reduced to five minutes if the planned roads are constructed in the area. “The real estate rates are increasing gradually and as the airport and trans-harbour project progress, it will increase further,” said Shroff.

The Khargar Cooperative Housing Societies Federation, which consists of 1,200 housing colonies, said this land is in a green zone and part of the 119-hectare Central Park, which is modelled on London’s Hyde Park. “The 24 acres were designated as a green zone when we all purchased our apartment and is part of Central Park. However, now the government is tweaking rules to facilitate a concrete jungle in this place,” said Commander S H Kalawat (retd), general secretary of Kharghar Cooperative Housing Societies Federation.

According to Kalawat, 39 of the 119 hectares have been converted to residential and now only 80 hectares remain in the green zone.

Realty research company Liases Foras said 24 acres is a big enough to house a large township project. “If the land rates are negligible, it will be a windfall for the builder. Townships sell better due to large number of amenities in that place. In addition, builders also charge premiums for such projects,” said Pankaj Kapoor, chief executive officer of Liases Foras.