No takers for prime PUDA land

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 14

The chunk of 8.21 acre prime land located right in front of the Mini Secretariat on Ferozepur Road (a national highway) here found no takers for the fourth time in succession in the e-auction of properties which concluded on December 10. There were no buyers for the piece of land carrying a reserve price tag of Rs 333.79 crore even though the reserve price had been slashed by 20 per cent (from previous floor price of Rs 415.71 crore).

The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority fared very well with a yield of little more than Rs 36.47 crore from the sale of 26 properties (with a combined reserve price of Rs 31.18 crore), out of a total of 50 offered for sale.

The GLADA Estate Officer, Sonam Chaudhry, said three shop-cum-office (SCOs), six booths and 11 shops in Sector 32-A, four shop-cum-offices (SCFs) in Dugri, Phase II, one residential plot in Sector 39-A and one school site in Sector 39 were sold at an impressive premium of 16.97 per cent.

One property (SCO in PWD Rest House at Khanna) sold in the e-auction on behalf of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) fetched Rs 1.56 crore, some 28 per cent premium over the reserve price of Rs 1.21 crore.

It would have been a history of sorts if the 8.21-acre chunk of land offered for sale on behalf of PUDA for commercial or group housing purpose was taken – even though at a slashed price, both in terms of area and the reserve price for a single property sold under the OUVGL (optimum use of vacant government land), at least in the business capital if not in the entire state.

The land belonging to the Canal/Irrigation Department was got vacated some five years ago and GLADA/PUDA have made three attempts during the period 2014-17 to sell it at a reserve price of Rs 415.21 crore. After three failed attempts, the price of the land was cut down by 20 per cent but even at the slashed price, there were no buyers for this land.