The Customs Department, Mumbai owns a plot of land measuring about 55.84 Acres (approximately 226000 sqm)*, situated at C. S. No. 146 at Wadala (E), Mumbai. Having given up almost 11 Acres of total land for Anik-Wadala link Road (referred as DP Road, in terms of City Development Plan) and Eastern Freeway, currently 45 Acres of land is available with department as net usable land. The title of the entire 56 acres of land though remains with department. Earlier, the entire land came under salt pan area which was only eligible for construction of Warehouse purposes. Later, through phased notifications, the land was notified for mix use constructions (Warehouse & Residential) and subsequently for residential purposes constructions. As on date the entire usable land stands eligible for Residential construction purposes in the state government records.
2. Currently, the available 45 acres of land lies trifurcated into 24 Acres, 3 Acres & 18 Acres (F/A’) due to passage of Anik-Wadala Road (a DP Road) and Eastern Freeway through the land. The land plot is situated at very prime location of Mumbai and is well connected through roads and Express Freeway to South Mumbai and on the other side to Navi Mumbai. Almost the entire land is placed in Residential Zone in terms of Mumbai City Development Plan, DP-2034, except a very small portion under CRZ-II (Approx. 1 Acre). New Cuffe Parade being developed by Lodha Group and Projects of Ajmera are only within a Kilometre range of the Customs Enclave Plot.
Earlier Proposal of Wadala Project
3. With all these USP’s of the land in place, Customs Department of Mumbai proposed to build (1) Office Complexes equipped with the state of the art facilities for modern office building and (2) Residential-cum-Sports Complex both on self sustaining basis for the department of Customs, CGST, Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate and officials thereof. Apart from this, a Kendriya Vidyalaya School upto 12th std. and a Hospital were also going to form the part of the project. The integrated township aimed to address Office Space needs and Housing crunch of all the departments and officials thereof, under ministry of finance having establishments in Mumbai. The enormity and sophistication of the project was to help it outstand from all the central govt. projects for Office Complexes & Housing across the country. Especially, the model of its funding, clubbed with gigantism of project was supposed to make it one of its kind in the country wherein, funding of the project was proposed to be recovered from the sale proceeds of 1/3rd of entire built up space of Project in the open market.
4. Building office complexes and residential quarters on the Customs Enclave plot has been a long pending and ambitious project for the department and has seen a couple of roll backs in the past decade, sometimes because of funding issues and other times because of certain other technicalities involved. CPWD too, was once entrusted with carrying out the project in the past but amid certain roadblocks and limitations at their end they had to retract from the project. However, with NBCC having to its credit a number of govt. projects built on self sustainable models in and around NCR, Delhi, the ministry appointed them as PMC (Project Management Consultant) in the year 2017 to take up our project. It was envisioned that on completion of the project, the infrastructure in place, would save approx Rs 253 Cr. of office rent (as on current rate) to the central govt apart from solving the housing woes of Central govt employees in Mumbai working under the ministry.
5. A consolidated residential requirement of CBIC, CBDT and ED was compiled wherein, the net residential requirement of CBIC, CBDT and ED was worked out to 3228 staff quarters with a total area of 313806 SQM while, the total office requirements had been worked out at 162500 SQM. A Detailed Project Report (DPR) dtd. 31.08.2018 was submitted by NBCC on 05.09.2018 (Prior to this, they had submitted a DPR in June 2018 also which was observed having some essentials missing). The layout proposed vide said DPR is featured at (F/B’). The Main features of DPR could be enumerated as below:
(i) Land Portion-1, having area 24 acres would erect a 50 storey Office Tower A for Customs, CGST and Directorates. This apart, 3228 units of govt. quarters (type II- VIII) covered within 12 blocks with a mix of 43 & 45 storey buildings and Community facilities spanning 5750 SQM would also stand on this portion of land.
(ii) Land Portion-2, having area of 3 Acres would allow erecting a 50 storey Commercial Tower, for sale in the open market.
(iii) Land Portion-3, having an area of 18 Acres would house a 50 storey Office Tower B for offices of CBDT and ED. This portion of land would also house 1980 flats of 2/2.5/3 BHK for sale in open market covered within 6 blocks of 45 storey building each. A School upto 12th std. and a Hospital of 200 beds would also come up over this portion of land.
(iv) The enumerations above were also having saleable portions within each of the three portions of our land. At a finer level of details, it was proposed to construct 1/3rd of entire permissible FSI in the form of Residential quarters and Commercial offices for sale to recover the cost of the construction of Office Complex and Residential quarters for the staff of CBIC, CBDT and ED. In order to fall through the norms of New Development Plan of the city, the govt use FSI had to be 2/3rd of permissible FSI in respect of entire available land. In other words, Govt use Residences & Offices would bear a 2:1 FSI ratio with Saleable Residences & Offices together. Distribution of FSI under different heads below brings up more clarity:
(i) Commercial Tower for sale having a covered area of 1,21,472 SQM.
(ii) Residential buildings for sale having covered area of 2,06,246 SQM.
(iii) Office Tower A having a covered area of 1,63,840 SQM
(iv) Office Tower B having a covered area of 96,160 SQM
(v) Staff Residences having a covered area of 4,06,004 SQM
Summary: 1 to 5 total 993722SQM, 1&2 Sale Component = 327718SQM, 3 to 5 Govt Use Component = 666004SQM. Thus, roughly the govt use portion was 2/3rd and saleable portion was 1/3rd of entire FSI summed up 1 to 5.
(v) School and Hospitals were supposed to use 22,000 SQM & 20,000 SQM of FSI respectively, totalling to 42,000 SQM. This had nothing to do with 2/3rd and 1/3rd norms, meaning this was accounting for separate provisions and norms. These public amenities had to find place mandatorily within AOS (Amenity Open Space) under DP norms. The AOS had to be earmarked 10% of our entire ground space and no construction, other than public utility could be built over. This 10% was further equally divided into two types: ROS (Reserved Open Space- for amenities to be built by local govt. as decided by them) & POS (Public Open Space- to be kept open for public use). This only implied that any construction Saleable or of Govt use had to be planned after carving out 10% from 45 acres of usable land for AOS. The same had been accounted for within layout of Detailed Project Report (DPR). A little variation though, from the norms in respect of AOS was that layout of our project, proposed constructing a School and hospital at our own expenses and not leaving up to state in deciding the type of Public Amenity. Since, the project layout was supposed to do significant savings for the state along with compliance of 10% AOS, Mumbai Customs as project owner was pursuing the state for some relaxation viz. (i) Doing away with EOS supposedly wrongly marked on map of land & (ii) Ruling out hand over of ROS land to MCGM for developing amenities as per their suitability.
6. The New Development Plan, DP 2034 had recently been notified by the Government of Maharashtra in May 2018 though come into force from 01.09.2018. On scrutiny of the draft DP 2034 it was seen that our project seemed subjected to certain new premiums and charges that was going to escalate the project cost anywhere between Rs. 700 Cr. to 2400 Cr. over and above the basic cost of 8339 Cr. Our feasibility report was based on the pre existing DP where no such charges were applicable to central govt. projects. Moreover, the project being self sustainable model, was anticipated facing with uncertainty of quantum of sale proceeds and escalations in the project cost due to inflation. The premium imposed through new DP and potential inflation could unsettle our project. It was thus felt that certain exemptions were required to be extended by State Government for enabling the project to take off and subsequent completion. The department started pursuing the state since November. 2017 for exemptions from premium on additional FSI, fungible, Staircase, lift and lift lobby apart from Development Cess and Development Charges. Additionally, accounting of ‘gross’ area for eligible calculation of FSI and seeking express permission to sale 1/3rd of commercial space was the department’s concern.
7. Several communications with State authorities viz. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra, Pr. Secretary, UD-I, Govt. of Maharashtra, Commissioner MCGM, Deputy Director (Development Plan), Town Planning, including meeting with Chief Minister, Maharashtra formed our efforts to secure requisite exemptions for this project. As per estimations made by NBCC, the Project Management Consultant (PMC) of the project, the exemptions so sought, were a necessity to make the project viable and then only implementation could be done successfully. Our higher ups have met the state authorities also in the pursuit of securing the required exemptions/ waivers. However, vide Govt. of Maharashtra letter dated 23.10.2018 (F/’C’), it was intimated that premiums requested could not be waived by the state.
8. The last DPR dated 31.08.2018 provided by the NBCC was fulfilling the missing essentials and incorporated vital aspects suggested by PPP expert Sh. Ajay Saxena, PPP Expert and same concurred by the building committee. The DPR however, was based on certain assumption that our project being a central govt project would be extended at least few of the exemptions and escalation was worked out to Rs. 1400cr. Post denial the premium waiver by the state however led the entire escalation to go upwards of 2200 cr. (F/‘D’) Consultations with NBCC, reports there from and rounds of deliberations with authorities, the Enclave team reached to a consensus that, project has become unviable in the instance of 2200cr escalations over and above Rs. 8339cr. of originally estimated cost.
Current Proposal of Wadala Project
9. The Enclave team in consultation with Project Consultant NBCC and architect ARCOP worked out certain figures on FSI that could be used to still go ahead with, without paying any premium to the state. The New figures scales down to 3,25,226 SQM of FSI. This free FSI available to us is in fact sum total of 157087.80×1.33 and 46678×2.5. where, 157087.80SQM is net available land, 1.33 is zonal FSI multiplier, 46678SQM is land lost towards, Anik Wadala Road and Eastern FreeWay and 2.5 is setback multiplier provisioned in the City plan.
10. In fact, on receipt of letter dated 23.10.2018 from Govt. of Maharashtra declining our request for premium waiver, the office communicated the same to DGHRD on 23.10.2018 (F/ ‘E’) itself. The letter to DG was basically a reply to an email by DG whereby a sketch of using free FSI made available to him by ARCOP Delhi was forwarded to us. Team’s workout however was also brought to notice of Chief Commissioner and after a detailed discussion, it was agreed by authorities that team’s workout should superimpose the layout sketch from ARCOP Delhi. Accordingly, the letter to DGHRD was sent on 23.10.2018 outlining all the improvements over the layout sketch, with reasons enumerated.
11. The office communication dated 23.10.2018 to DGHRD was forthwith responded vide a letter dated 24.10.2018 which actually was an accord to our proposals dtd. 23.10.218 and an intimation that DG had scheduled a meeting with Finance Secretary on 29.10.2018 to discuss the things ahead. It was requested vide the said letter from DGHRD to take up the matter with NBCC asking them to prepare feasibility report so that same could be placed before Finance Secretary in the scheduled meeting.
12. NBCC was communicated vide a letter dated 25.10.2018 enclosing free FSI propositions and layout sketch agreed by authorities to prepare feasibility report. In response to this office request, NBCC forwarded the feasibility report on 26.10.208 at 8:20pm. Accordingly, comparative study of the earlier and current propositions for the project, key statistics and essence of feasibility was prepared and handed over to the Chief Commissioner and ADC (PG) next day morning who were heading to Delhi on 29.10.2018 for the meeting same day with Finance Secretary.
13. On November 30th, morning the team was called upon by the Chief Commissioner and was briefed on what transpired during meeting with Finance Secretary on 29.10.2018. The Chief Commissioner let the team knew that our proposal has been given in –principle approval and the NBCC has to be pursued for a fresh feasibility report vetted well from their end and a new DPR based on the current propositions of the project, technically FSI2.07. On directions of Chief Commissioner, the NBCC has been communicated on elaborate lines to furnish a fresh feasibility report and new DPR vide this office letter dated 31.10.2018 (F/ ‘F’). The said letter also contains suggested layout sketch of the revised model. The team is pursuing with NBCC and assisting them with inputs and clarity wherever required, the communication on the official lines from them however awaited. A comparative study of the revised model of the project can be seen placed opposite as( F/G’). The same comparative note made the part of folder handed over to Chief Commissioner for meeting with FS on 29.10.2018. The Current workout of propositions too is a self sustaining model wherein also, the fund has to be generated from scratch and there is no investor pillar in this model too. The said comparative note was made on the basis of feasibility report dated 26.10.2018 emailed by NBCC. The report worked out project cost to Rs 2779.37 cr. and the entire funding is supposed to be fetched by selling 1,08,000 SQM of built up residence units.
14. As per latest feasibility report emailed by NBCC on personal email of Supdt. Enclave Cell on 03.11.2018, the project cost has been worked out to Rs. 2768 cr. while the expected sale proceeds has been worked out to Rs. 2786 cr. This gives rise to a surplus of Rs 18 cr.
15. However, NBCC made a certain changes in car parking nos. (1134 nos. lowered to 1056, the sale rate keeping unchanged) and delivered a fresh feasibility report on 05.11.2018, 14:00 pm. The proceeds accordingly scaled down to 2778.68 (rounded 2779) Crore where as project cost 2767.64 (rounded to 2768 )Crore giving rise a surplus of 11 Cr. (rounded). The FSI redistribution among the different components is as per this PDF and it is same as communicated vide feasibility dated 03.11.2018. The revised Feasibility Report under Official Communication of NBCC is also received.
( *Actual Area 54.66 acres after deducting CRZ-II area (1.25 acres) comes out to 221220 SQM)