Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways is understood to have asked the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority for six more months to pay for the 1.47-acre Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) plot it bought for Rs 826 crore in 2008.
The private air-carrier had planned to raise $200 million (about Rs 900 crore), but there has been no movement forward. Jet has till date paid only the earnest money (Rs 10 crore) for the land on which it wants to build its headquarters.
"They have approached us seeking more time to pay for this land," a MMRDA official said here. When asked whether the Authority was considering Jet's plea, the official said, "It (the request) is under process."
MMRDA is the the nodal agency responsible for planning the metropolitan area development of the metropolis as well as the urban area on the mainland.
Last September, MMRDA chief Ratnakar Gaikwad had said that the airline had been given time till September 30 to cough up 50 per cent of the land cost. The issue (of granting or nor granting) time to Jet Airways would be taken up at the MMRDA's next Board meeting, the official said.
The official, however, did not divulge the dates for the proposed Board meeting.
Recently, an MMRDA Board member Ashish Shelar had said that the Board had taken a decision to confiscate Jet Airways' earnest money and that the Authority had the right to re-auction the land at a premium.
"The Board in its last meeting has taken a decision to confiscate the earnest deposit," he had said. The Airline, however, said that it did not have any communication from the Authority in this regard.
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"We have sent a proposal to the MMRDA and are awaiting a response from them," a Jet Airways spokesperson had said last week.
Shelar said, "According to the rules, the winning bidder of a BKC plot has to pay up half the amount within a month of receiving the allotment letter and the rest over the next two-months. If the bidder fails, MMRDA can retain the earnest money deposit and call off the deal."