Could The Sale of This 963 Acre Land Chunk, Possibly The Largest in MMR, Be a Big Boost For Palghar Real Estate?

As a possible township, the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman-owned Palghar property, which is four times the area of Mahalaxmi racecourse and valued at over INR 1100 cr, is being offered for sale.

In 1928, landowner Jamshed Khodaram Irani gave almost 2,300 acres in Palghar, close to Mumbai, to the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman, a humanitarian organisation. Over the years, when vast portions of the trust's land were donated to the government for different reasons, the trust was left with an enormous 963 acres.

Now, the Anjuman Trust has placed the whole sprawl up for sale. According to property industry sources, this is the largest tract of land to be put up for auction in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Knight Frank India, a global property consultancy hired by the Anjuman to solicit bids and negotiate the sale, has put the land's worth at INR 1100 cr.

It is around 2 kilometres from the Palghar train station. Global real estate consultancy Knight Frank has been selling this land, located around 110 kilometres from Mumbai, as a future township.

The land is always threatened by illegal occupation. It is a challenging undertaking and Pervez Irani of the Anjuman said that selling it is the only choice at this time.

The trust gets Rs 21 lakh annually from the sale of grass grown on this site. A percentage of these earnings are shared with Palghar's local communities "he remarked.

President of the Anjuman, Khodu Lrani, said that the revenues from the sale of the property would assist the trust in carrying out its charity operations for the community.

According to the agreement from 1928 assigning the property to the Anjuman, the trust was to utilise the land's revenues for charitable and religious organisations. For example, establishing and maintaining orphanages or schools for Zoroastrian Persian boys and girls, as well as providing medical services.

The land owner and the Anjuman also agreed that if the property was sold, the trustees would transfer the money to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. The revenue obtained by the Punchayet will be returned to the Anjuman for use in furthering the trust's purposes. It also gives the trustees of the Anjuman the freedom to sell or lease the property as they saw appropriate.

Hushang Vakil, a community organiser, said that the trustees have the right to sell the property, but only after consulting with the Parsi Irani Zarathushti community so that the advantages flow to their future generations.

Vakil stated that the community opposes the sale of trust assets because caretakers have reportedly misappropriated monies in the past.

Trustees must be forthright about their plans and objectives, and they must dispel any questions about the sale's financial benefits "he stated.

The trust attempted to sell this property to a building company from the Vasai-Virar area a decade ago. A portion of the Parsi-Irani-Zoroastrian population, however, resisted this agreement vehemently, causing its failure. They argued that no trust land should be sold in this way and that the property should be utilised for the benefit of the community. The Anjuman said that the state government had obliged the trust to contribute 500 acres to Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement and 449 acres to it under the Agricultural Land Ceiling Act throughout the years.