Gudadhe questions NMC land deals on Orange City Street

Time of India

24-05-2025

Nagpur: Former Congress corporator and AICC secretary Prafulla Gudadhe has alleged that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) handed over prime city land worth Rs582.53 crore to private builders, while managing to recover just Rs47.86 crore—a mere 8.21% of the declared value.
Slamming the civic body for what he described as a "giveaway disguised as development," Gudadhe claimed that the entire deal is tilted in favour of developers, at the cost of public interest and livelihoods of thousands of local street vendors.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Gudadhe presented a detailed dossier alleging gross irregularities in NMC's sale of six out of 21 plots originally transferred to the civic body by the state govt for development of a public-commercial corridor dubbed "London Street," (now Orange City Street).
These 2.38 lakh sqm of plots—formerly defence land—were meant to serve the public by promoting mixed-use development, including provisions for street vendors and low-income entrepreneurs.
Gudadhe claimed the NMC has betrayed its public mandate by gifting away these strategic plots to private builders under a deceptive Build-Operate-Transfer (BoT) model. "They boast of earning Rs561 crore, but that's staggered over 10 years.
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On the ground, only Rs47.86 crore has entered the public treasury. This is not revenue generation—it's revenue illusion," he said.
As per Gudadhe, documents show glaring disparities in declared sale values and actual receipts. "One 12,500 sq.m. plot (Plot No. 3) was sold for Rs235 crore, yet NMC has only received Rs5 crore from the buyer. This pattern repeats across other plots, with developers benefiting from undervalued deals, deferred payments, and low upfront commitments, while gaining rights to develop high-end malls, showrooms, hotels, and corporate bazaars," he said.
Gudadhe claimed the entire project is proceeding with no regard for the livelihoods of over 5,000 local street vendors who operate along the stretch. "In Jaitala Market, where over a thousand vendors earn daily wages, the NMC plans to build a mall, reserving only first floor for 202 vegetable stalls. This is tokenism. The rest will be swallowed by big brands," he said.
Gudadhe claimed the move also violates Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, which mandates surveys, designated vending zones, and non-eviction until vendors are accommodated—a process NMC has allegedly bypassed.
"Without a public body in place for over three years, these backdoor deals are being pushed by bureaucrats in collusion with top state political leaders. The result is privatization of public land without transparency, accountability, or democratic consultation," Gudadhe thundered.
He has demanded immediate halting of all private development on the Orange City Street land, full disclosure of contract terms, and rehabilitation of all affected vendors. "If these deals go through, it will not just be land, but the trust of Nagpurians that the NMC has sold out," he concluded.