State stalls NTC mills’ redevelopment plans

The National Textile Corporation (NTC) may have hit the goldmine by garnering a record Rs 1,979 crore from the sale of its two Worli mills—Bharat Textile and Podar Processing recently but the state government has put the redevelopment plans on hold.

The National Textile Corporation (NTC) may have hit the goldmine by garnering a record Rs 1,979 crore from the sale of its two Worli mills—Bharat Textile and Podar Processing recently but the state government has put the redevelopment plans on hold.

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The state government’s Urban Development (UD) Department has directed the civic body to not allow any redevelopment to take place on the 10.6-acre land in both these mills because NTC has not yet submitted the two mills’ integrated development plan as mandated in Development Control (DC) regulations.

This integrated plan includes handing over one-third of the open plot to both the civic body and MHADA. “They are supposed to take our permission for the integrated plan which has not yet been done,” said a senior official of the state government.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation uses this part of the plot for creating playgrounds and recreation while the MHADA uses them for housing mill workers and creating transit accommodation.

However, NTC called this just a problem of lack of communication. “We will surely give one of our mills for housing and civic amenities as in the previous case,” said the senior NTC official who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. "We will sort out the issue before our next auction," he added.

Last week, the Bharat textile mill was sold at the record price of Rs 1,505 crore, the highest amount for any mill, the 2.39-acre Podar Processing went for Rs 474 crore, two weeks ago. The NTC said that this sale amount will be pumped in to revive as well as set up new mills across the country.