CSE exit from Bypass fetches it a windfall

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The Calcutta Stock Exchange could get a windfall of at least a hundred crore from the sale of a prime plot on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass near the ITC Sonar luxury hotel that it is giving up as it moves further away from its Lyons Range address in the city to Rajarhat New Town.

Sunil Mitra, the additional chief secretary to the power department who is also a director on the CSE board, said the CSE will get 60% of the sale price of half the 10-acre plot that it is giving up to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. In return, the CSE will withdraw litigation.

"Land is selling at very high prices, and whatever it sells for, 60% will be a lot of money and that builds up our corpus so we can decide what to do with the land in Rajarhat," said Mitra.

According to the last recorded price, land adjacent to the current Bypass plot fetched Rs 40 crore per acre in an auction. Going by this old rate, the CSE could get at least Rs 120 crore.

The CSE is now buying a five-acre plot in the central business district of the Rajarhat New Town.

"We will pay Rs 5 per acre for the five acres, and pay straightaway the Rs 25 crore price," said Mitra. The Rajarhat land will be freehold, unlike the Bypass land, which is leasehold and had conditions.

Sources said one option being considered is a finance special economic zone (SEZ), with the new CSE campus being part of it. The state has in mind something like the Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai.