VSNL surplus land valued at Rs 740 crore: Government

NEW DELHI: The government today said the erstwhile VSNL, now Tata Communications, has over 740 acres of surplus land valued at Rs 6,156.58 crore but the revenue it will get from the proposed sale will depend upon the market conditions.

The government in July had approved the demerger of surplus VSNL land into a separate company.

"Erstwhile VSNL has 740.63 acres of surplus land valued at Rs 6,156.58 crore," Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

He added the estimation of land value was done on August 10, 2011, based on land rates as per state government notifications.

"The government has approved hiving off surplus land held by erstwhile VSNL into a resulting company named Hemisphere Properties India Limited (HPIL) in which the government will acquire 51.12 per cent by incurring an expenditure of Rs 2.55 lakh, i.e 51.12 per cent of the paid up capital of Rs 5 lakh," Deora said.

The firm has surplus land at five locations which include Dighi in Pune, Hali Shahar in Kolkata, Chattarpur and Greater Kailash in Delhi and Padianallur in Chennai, Deora said.

"The value of land at two locations in Delhi stood at Rs 5,375.52 crore, in Pune it is Rs 512.13 crore, while in Chennai and Kolkata, it is Rs 186.22 crore and 82.71 crore respectively," he added.

The issue of surplus land has been pending since 2002 when Tata Communications acquired the PSU.

Following Tata's acquisition, the surplus land was lying unused.