20 days on, govt yet to decide on Maruti’s request for land

Sumedha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Gurugram, September 9

It has been 20 days since Maruti Suzuki sought land for a third facility in Gurugram, but the Haryana Government is yet to decide between land allotment to the auto major at fair price or its e-auction to developers.

While all, including the government, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Maruti, continue to stay mum, sources claim that dealing officials are yet to reach a consensus over the issue.

A section of officials favour allotment of 700 acres at ‘fair price’ at Rs 2 crore per acre to the auto major, but the others have been opposing it, insisting on an auction of this land to get better price.

Apparently well aware of this “dissent” in the department, the auto major in its proposal dated August 18 (a copy of which is with The Tribune) says that CM Manohar Lal Khattar had “mentioned” that there is a proposal to auction this land to developers who would then sell the land to the actual users.

“Maruti Suzuki is not a developer and perhaps won’t be eligible to bid as we are not in the business of developing and selling land. Acquiring any other land would be time-consuming and would prolong inconvenience to the general public. Thus in their interest, selling of this land to Maruti at fair price be considered,” reads the proposal sent by Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki.

According to sources, the HSIIDC was in talks with a Chinese major till last year to develop a Chinese industrial township in PPP mode at Rs 1.6 crore per acre. However, the deal never materialised.

Though the department kept on publicising its plans to go for joint development under PPP at the IMT site, not many players showed interest. Then, Maruti moved this proposal citing issues at the Gurugram facility.

The proposal reads: “When we came here in 1981, the site had no residential colonies but just agricultural land. Today, a great deal of residential development has taken place around the manufacturing facility at Gurgaon. As a result, the local administration has been asking us to curtail production.

“Keeping in mind the people’s welfare and the administration’s request, we have no issues in shifting the facility. But we have two considerations. The new site should be approachable to our 25,000 workers in addition to ensuring that our manufacturing is not hit during the shifting. Hence, we need a site close to the current facility and find IMT Sohna-Mewat as apt,” states the proposal.

A senior official said, “We cannot give this land at a throwaway price when any realtor will happily pay almost double. Hasty fair price allotment will mean loss. We don’t know why some officials are batting for this deal of loss. Maruti is a big company and it should buy land at auction price.”

Meanwhile, another official said, “We acquired this land in 2010 and started plotting only by 2015. Till date, we have not been able to get any key players in the auction. We were ready to get a Chinese realtor at a much lower price, but are opposing an auto major that can change the face of Sohna. If Maruti buys 700 acres, it will not just lead to development of Sohna, but also appreciate the value of other HSIIDC properties.”

A Cabinet Minister said, “The country is poll-bound and the auto major is under immense pressure to make investments in other states. We had been keeping this proposal hushed up to ensure Maruti stays in Haryana and we got more development. But now, with the corporation putting things in public, we need to act fast.”

Fair price or e-auction? 

A section of officials favour allotment of 700 acres at ‘fair price’ at Rs 2 crore per acre to the auto major, but the others have been opposing it, insisting on an auction of this land to get better price.