Hooda govt too bats for DLF

Sanjeev Kochhar / TNN / Mar 11, 2006, 02:10 IST

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Hooda Government appears to be batting for DLF, even though it has fixed a decent enough reserve price for the land.

CHANDIGARH: Is the Haryana Government once again preparing to hand over 19.5 acres of prime land acquired from Nathupur gram panchayat, adjoining the prime Sector 55-56 road in Gurgaon, to real estate developers DLF Universal Ltd on a platter?
The eligibility criterion fixed by the state electronics and information technology department for disposing off the land by inviting competitive bids appears to be tailor made for DLF.
The previous INLD government, led by Om Prakash Chautala, had acquired the land for a pittance -Rs 4 crore - on behalf of a real estate developer.
It was supposed to fill up "infrastructural gaps" in the proposed cyber city, spread over 86 acres, for which it had a license from the town and country planning department.

The state government, however, had to back out after some officials opposed the deal. The Congress party, which was in the opposition then, snowballed the issue into a controversy.
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress Government now itself appears to be batting for DLF, even though it has fixed a decent enough reserve price - Rs 50 crore - for the land.
Sources said with the condition that the bidder should have a minimum turnover of Rs 250 crore, a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore and experience of developing one million square feet office working space for IT and related companies during the last five years, very few companies would qualify.

Since DLF has already made an offer to the state government, the highest bid would be treated as the fair price of land and DLF would then be given an offer to buy this land at the highest bid price.
The land will go to the highest bidder only if DLF declines the offer. With such a conditionality, which company, other than DLF, would bid with an earnest money of Rs 5 crore, the sources added.
Another factor which goes for DLF is that the land is scattered in several pockets within and adjacent to its proposed cyber city.
While inclusion of this land in DLF's proposed cyber city will make it a compact block, for others to raise a cyber city in scattered pockets will not be a viable proposition.
The DLF also stands to gain majorly from the exploitation of the 10 percent land in the cyber city for commercial purposes allowed to it under the license as a special case by the previous government against 4 percent provided for in the policy for cyber cities.
The sources said once DLF strikes the deal, it can exploit all of the more than 10 acres it is allowed for commercial use on one linear strip of the newly bought land along the prime Sector 55-56 road, which by current prices will run into a few hundred crores.
Another issue raised by the then youth Congress president and now minister in the Hooda government Randeep Singh Surjewala, challenging the earlier license granted to DLF Universal by the previous Chautala government without floating national/global tender, has also not been addressed by the state government.
In a memorandum submitted to governor AR Kidwai then, Surjewala had said that the town and country planning department had also not appraised the project report of DLF on the known yardsticks of period of completion of project, quantum of investment to be brought in within a specified period, level of employment to be provided within a specified period and layout plan detailing specified purposes for which total land would be utilised.
The state government, however, defends the decision saying even if the land finally goes to DLF, the process of competitive bidding would ensure that the government gets a good price for the land.

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