Aamby Valley sale may be delayed

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The process to sell the Sahara group's Aamby Valley began last year under the High Court liquidator, but it seems it will be delayed, as there are issues regarding illegal construction on the land, provisions of property laws, as well as uniform licences for hotels in the area. A committee of Pune district administration and Satara administration members and other department officials held a meeting recently, in which it was decided that the issues and solutions to them will be submitted in a report to the Apex Court. However, a PMRDA official said there won't be a delay. Aamby Valley has denied illegal construction.

In 2017, the SC had asked the official liquidator of the Bombay High court to take over Aamby Valley, and accordingly in December, 2017, the auction process began.

Last week in Pune, a meeting was held with officials of the Pune district administration and Satara administration, forest department, special land acquisition officers, Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) etc on the issues.

The price of the land
A senior official from the Pune district administration said, "Aamby Valley is spread across 7,000 acres of land which falls under Pune as well as Satara administrative jurisdiction. Apart from it, around 346 hectares land belongs to the forest department. Initially the amount for its auction was decided at Rs 6 crore per acre, but in the meeting it was suggested that the price needs to fall down to Rs 2.50 crore, as it was claimed that it comes under the ready reckoner rate."

He added, "The issues also discussed were illegal construction sites, along with gift deed properties, as well as Mahar Watan lands, and the nazarana (a type of charge) one pays the government, as such lands have different norms." Aamby Valley was created after acquiring all such lands.

Pune district's resident District Collector, Rajendra Muthe, refused to share details. However, PMRDA metropolitan commissioner Kiran Gitte said, "There are few issues we are tackling, but they will not delay the process of sale. These are about few land records and some papers of the land, which are missing. The forest reservation land is also in different areas and not located in one area collectively."

Aamby Valley says
Sahara's Aamby Valley spokesperson said, "There is absolutely no unauthorised construction in Aamby Valley, and there is no hassle about forest land. The allegations about land pertaining to Gifted deed as well as Mahar Vatan lands are completely basesless."

Also read: SC attaches Sahara group's Aamby Valley project worth Rs 39,000 crore