NTC land in Gujarat fetches Rs.145.93 crore

GANDHINAGAR - Hitting a New Year jackpot, the National Textiles Corporation (NTC) has sold through an e-auction two closed mills in Gujarat for a combined price of Rs.145.93 crore ($32.6 million) against a total reserve price of Rs.68.74 crore, a statement said here Saturday.

In a keenly-fought three-day auction that went on nearly till the dawn of the New Year, Ahmedabad Advance Mills Ltd. bagged the coveted 33,222 sq metres plot of New Manekchowk Textile Mills in Ahmedabad for Rs.118.40 crore, nearly 2.5 times the reserve price of Rs 41.27 crore.

Lok Prakashan Ltd. grabbed 61,040 sq metres of land belonging to the closed Mahalaxmi Textiles Mills at Bhavnagar for Rs.27.53 crore against the reserve price of Rs.27.47 crore, the statement said.

The auction for the two plots began at 10 a.m. Dec 29, 2010.

“We have proved again that e-auction is the finest option to sell the property by a government-owned company,” NTC chairman and managing director K. Ramachandran Pillai said.

“The company has about 1,300 acres of land in places such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Indore and Coimbatore. The NTC also intends to sell around 30 acres of Minerva Mills land in Bangalore through e-auction in the near future,” he said.

This is the third sale by NTC after it adopted the trend-setting e-auction route to sell its surplus land.

In the first e-auction held from July 29, the company garnered Rs.474 crore for the 2.3-acre Poddar Mill land in Mumbai, against the reserve price of Rs.250 crore.

The 8.3 acre land of Bharat Textiles Mills at Worli in Mumbai was sold for a whopping Rs.1,505 crore against the reserve price of Rs.750 crore in the second round of online auction from Aug 4 to 6.

The lands are being sold to fund NTC’s ongoing modernisation-cum-revival package worth Rs.9,102 crore for 24 mills.

Modernisation of 18 mills has been completed and they are now generating profits. The company has also come out of the red through the comprehensive package, the release said.