Air India has been offering to sell more than 50 properties and the land parcels as the cash-strapped flag carrier is making a renewed attempt of achieving the goal of increasing nearly $ 500 crores from the divestiture this monetary.
The real estate assets have also put on the blocks include those which have remained unsold the last February due to its high reserve bills and the overall lukewarm industry demand.
Air India has even put up the apartments for auction in Mahim, Cuffe Parade, Malad, Khar, Bandr, Colaba areas of Mumbai, then Bangalore’s Indiranagar, Navrangpura and Memnagar localities of Ahmedabad along with the properties and the land parcels in Goa, Bhuj, Kolkata, Pune, Gwalior, Nashik and Trivendrum, it is also said in an advertisement in the national daily on Thursday.
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The loss making airline is tapping the state-owned MSTC Ltd that specializes in conducting the e-auctions to divest the real estate assets. E-bids for the properties is comprising mostly the residential flats and the land plots which can be submitted until 12th October.
“Air India hopes to raise at least ₹500 crore from the sale of its real estate assets by end of the current fiscal ,” said a senior airline official, who did not want to be named. “The airline had earlier raised ₹30 crore to ₹35 crore from property auctions in February this year,” the official said. Air India has a net debt of ₹55,000 crore, including ₹21,000-22,000 crore of aircraft debt.
The carrier will be using the proceedings from its aid monetization to cut back the bill. The national carrier is also hoping to conclude the sale of its erstwhile head office in Mumbai’s Nariman Point to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at the end of the budgetary.
Air India has also found the buyers for the one-fourth of its 45 properties and the land parcels for its auctions throughout the major cities and towns of India. The properties which are sold include nearly 14 apartments in Tony Pali Hill Area of Mumbai which had a reserved price of nearly $ 200 crore according to the Air India auction documents of February.
As per the documents, the total reserve price for the 41 properties put on the block in February, excluding the Pali Hill property, stood at ₹365.89 crore. Most of these properties remained unsold and have been again put on sale.
“The residential markets (in India) are slowly witnessing a revival, post the slowdown witnessed last year. This has been on account of the uncertainty regarding implications of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 (RERA) and the goods & services tax (GST) gradually settling,” Ficci and Jones Lang LaSalle India said in a September report titled Future of India Real Estate: Deciphering the mid term perspective.
“Air India is committed to its land monetisation program,” the official said. The Air India official also mentioned that most of the title deeds for the properties those are looked by the airlines are planning to sell in the current financial year.
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