Bombay Dyeing gets HC nod, can handover land at 1 location

Wadia controlled Bombay Dyeing on Wednesday secured relief from the Bombay High Court. The court approved Bombay Dyeing's composite plan to surrender land in lieu of its plans for redevelopment in Lower Parel and wadala, reports CNBC-TV18’s Ashmit Kumar

The plan for redevelopment gets a lot smoother for Bombay Dyeing after the Bombay High Court order. Bombay Dyeing owned and sought to redevelop the land from two cotton mills located in the Lower Parel and Wadala regions of Mumbai. The total open space at the two land parcel adds up to 9.95 hectares or 99,500 sq m. In the event of a cotton mill undergoing redevelopment, as per the local Development Control Regulations of 1991, 34 percent land has to be surrendered to Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (MHADA) and 33% to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation  BMC. Bombay Dyeing was initially supposed to surrender 52331.55 sq. m at Wadala and 12823.39 at Lower Parel. However, Bombay Dyeing, as a part of an integrated proposal, offered to surrender over 66,000 sq m of land from the Wadala land parcel, provided that the lower parel land parcel would remain untouched. Many local real estate experts and consultants are of the view that properties in Lower Parel carry a premium over similar properties in the Wadala region of the Mumbai. This plan for redevelopment has been upheld, with the Bombay HC ruling that the final discretion over where to surrender land, in such a scheme of redevelopment, rests with the developer – Bombay Dyeing, in this case. The Court also held that Bombay Dyeing’s proposal was sound in law and was fully compliant with the local regulations. The Mill workers, who are party to this case, are unhappy with the verdict for disallowing them a share of land from Lower Parel mill land. MHADA, as per the local regulations, will use surrendered land to provide residential facilities to mill workers, among others. The mill workers are likely to appeal against the order in the apex court. The Bombay Dyeing stock closed higher on Wednesday at 69.40, after rallying by 4.68 percent.