Just three top developers – Adani Realty, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), and Mayfair Housing – have placed bids for the redevelopment of the prestigious 24-acre sprawl at the Bandra reclamation. The online bids were opened by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) on Wednesday. It may be recalled that the pre-bid meet hosted a fortnight ago by JLL, a global property consultant for the MSRDC had been attended by several top players. Godrej Properties, Adani Realty, Sunteck Realty, K Raheja Corp, L&T Realty, Wadhwa Group, Runwal, Oberoi Realty, Lodha, Sattva were some of the top brands to headline the gathering.
However, just three have responded to the bidding process. According to Kailas Jadhav, Joint Managing Director, MSRDC, the bids have now been handed over to property consultant JLL to evaluate their technical capability. This process will likely take a week. “After technical assessment of the three bidders, the financial envelope will be opened and the highest bidder will be awarded the contract,” he said. Jadhav added that since the MSRDC bids were based on a revenue sharing model, the developer who offers the maximum percentage will “be the obvious choice”.
Bidders to undergo technical assessment
Top level representatives of the three developers and officials of consultant JLL were also present at the high-level meeting held at the MSRDC office in Bandra on Wednesday. The final decision will be discussed and approved by the MSRDC Board. Accordingly, a letter of acceptance will be issued to the highest bidder, Jadhav explained. Several developers, who had attended the pre-bid meet, had questioned the eligibility norms in the tendering process on the condition of anonymity.
Raising serious concerns, some top builders had alleged that the MSRDC was favouring one or two big developers and that the bids were tailor-made for a select few. “The biggest of us will find it difficult to meet these norms. Imposing a financial criterion to have Rs15,000 crore net worth in one single entity is restricting the opportunity to one or two builders,” a top builder had said. Another builder added that the norms are stringent because the developer is expected to pay Rs8,000 crore to MSRDC over a period of 9-14 years. Builders had raised queries and requested MSRDC Board to relax the norms so as to enable more developers to bid for the project. However, the body had stuck to its eligibility norms after examining every query
