CHANDIGARH: Sector 39 vegetable and fruit market will be the first one to be hit by the MHA restrictions on Chandigarh administration, where it can’t auction or offer sites on a freehold basis.
The administration, which was in final stages of auctioning the shop-cum-office (SCO) sites in the new market on a freehold basis, is now reworking the plan, bringing it in lines with the MHA directions.
MHA refrained the administration from allotment of any kind of industrial and commercial properties on a freehold basis. The MHA had earlier submitted in the Supreme Court its stand against allowing conversion of leasehold commercial and industrial properties to freehold.
As per the revised plan, UT will be offering only leasehold properties in the market. UT had planned to auction 92 freehold plots, each having an area of 120 sq yards. The reserve price was estimated to be around Rs 3.75 crore. After much delay and deliberations, the UT in Dec 2022 had finally decided to auction the plots as freehold properties.
“The administration, municipal corporation and the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) all have failed to attract buyers for the leasehold properties. Large numbers of properties are lying unsold with the three agencies because of this reason. The prospects of attracting buyers in the new Sector 39 market have also turned bleak with the recent MHA decisions,” said an official.
Notably, the MHA put a blanket ban on administration offering freehold properties, the administration itself had junked a CHB proposal to auction its leasehold properties on freehold basis. In February 2023, the administration had rejected the CHB proposal stating, “there is no policy under which conversion can be allowed for CHB’s commercial properties”.
The UT decision on CHB properties had come a year after its decision to allow for auction of its own leasehold properties as freehold.
