According to reports, R K Damani, owner of mega retail chain D-Mart, has paid INR 65 crores to convert 1.4 acres (7,634 sqm built-up area) of leasehold land into freehold.
In an article by Times of India, the Maharashtra revenue department has charged 25% of the ready reckoner rate as a premium for the conversion. This March, Damani and his brother Gopichand purchased a ground-plus-two floor bungalow at Malabar Hill for INR 1,001 crores. The bungalow stood on land leased in 1939 to Govindlal Bansilal, later transferred to Premchand Roychand & Sons LLP.
Meanwhile, the application was made by the company in 2019 for conversion from leasehold to freehold. The land was leased for 971 years and was to expire in 2910. This January, the Malabar Hill revenue division wrote to the Mumbai city collector to allow the conversion.
Furthermore, in the past, Avenue Supermarts, which runs the DMart chain of stores in the country, has shut two outlets in the city across Mumbai, one at Mira Road and the other at Kalyan, in order to ramp up its e-commerce operations.
Moreover, the stores had been converted into online fulfilment centres, as per the company. This implies that no offline retail activity would be carried out in these locations. Even though company officials were quick to defend the move stating that there are alternate stores within a four-km radius, experts argue that the reason for the move was to take on Reliance in the e-commerce space.
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