New Delhi: Babus in the central government have sought a unique compensation for vacating a plot of land at the Mumbai airport - get the company that owns the airport to build swanky sea-facing apartments for themselves in tony South Mumbai for free.
In a first-of-its-kind barter deal between the government and a private firm, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), the company that operates Mumbai's airport, has been asked by the Central Public Works Department to build a new tower at Hyderabad Estate on Nepean Sea Road, an office building in Kane Nagar near Dadar and a 50-apartment block near the airport in return for vacating a 13-acre airport land, where the department has had 278 houses and a few godowns for 50 years.The prestigious Hyderabad Estate - where several top bureaucrats, including IAS officers, chief commissioners of income-tax as well as officers of the customs and excise departments, have lived for over four decades - is in an elite neighbourhood that houses the residences of many of the country's big industrialists. Apartments in this area sell for between 20 crore and 50 crore.
Property consultants said they had never heard of a similar deal between the government and a company. "But if this deal goes through, it will open up a window of opportunities for private-public relationships," said Mudassir Zaidi, regional director for global property consultant Knight Frank.
03/05/13 Ravi Teja Sharma/Economic Times
