Navi Mumbai theme park gets bid of Rs1,530 crore

In a major boost to the Navi Mumbai property market, an international standard theme park planned by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) across 250 acres at Kharghar received the highest bid of Rs 1,530.35 crore. The bid is 143% higher than the Rs630 crore base price fixed by Cidco.

The highest bidder in this public-private partnership project was Future City Properties Pvt Ltd, a consortium led by the Bhushan Steel group, a leading auto-steel manufacturing company.

Located roughly 2km away from Kharghar station, the theme park will have film-based rides, studio tours, a convention centre, an amphitheatre, a festive plaza, museums, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, monorail, and an art gallery.

As per the plan, 60% of the 250 acres will be used for the theme park while the remaining area will be used for residential and commercial development.

If the Cidco board confirms the winning bid, Future City will get a 60-year lease of the property. The total cost of the project, to be completed over seven years, is estimated at Rs7,809 crore. Nittin Johari, director (finance), Bhushan Steel, confirmed the project bid.

However, he was unable to provide the details of the project as it was being handled by another part of the group. Another official of the company said Bhushan Steel had been looking for an opportunity to diversify into different businesses.    

“This particular plan was put on the backburner because of the slowdown. Now, the economy is looking up, and the company decided to bid for the project,’’ said the official.

The other two bids for the Kharghar project were far lower, at Rs 1,059.51 crore and Rs 808 crore. A consortium of Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd and the Abu Dhabi-based Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training made the former bid, while another consortium of GVK Developmental Projects Pvt Ltd and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) quoted Rs 808 crore.

The theme selected by Future City is Bollywood Hills while the other two consortiums wanted to develop the area on the theme of Sky Castle and Knowledge City respectively.

The Future City bid is one of the biggest received by Cidco in recent years. Two years ago, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), a leading construction giant, successfully bagged Cidco’s Seawoods integrated development project for a whopping Rs 1,809 crore.

Being a public-private project, a new company will be formed jointly by Cidco and Future City. Cidco’s participation will be 26% without any cash investment from its side.

“The consortium will make a detailed project report within the next eight months. After the plan is approved, construction will start. As per the deadline fixed for the project, we expect the park to be ready by 2017,’’ said GS Gill, managing director, Cidco.

Added Dr DLN Murthy, Cidco’s general manager (IT & SP): “The response was simply unexpected. This is a one-of-its-kind project and will boost realty prices in the developing city. The revenue generated by the project can be utilised for the city’s development.’’

As per an estimate, the theme park is expected to generate a footfall of 22,000 persons on holidays and 8,000 persons on week days.

Future City was selected by a technical panel of experts comprising the Maharashtra additional chief secretary, the vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra Airport Development Authority, RC Sinha, the director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research, Dilip Nachne, the managing director of General Atlantic, Ranjit Pandit, the former chief planner of MMRDA, VK Phatak, and the managing director (special projects) for SKIL, DP Sawant. The expert committee rated Future City’s project at 86.50, with the other two scoring 52.20 and 77.26.