The Times of India       14.12.2010

Lease over, KMC may take back prime business locations

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation is keen on getting back some of its old buildings Futnani Chambers, which houses the popular Aminia restaurant, and the Roxy Cinema which it had once leased out to private takers nearly a century ago. With the lease period over long ago, the civic bosses want to hike the lease money or take over the buildings as part of jacking up revenues.

The civic authorities woke up six months ago when the KMC surveyor's department officials found that the lease period of Roxy cinema had expired in 2005. KMC had handed over the property, located on Corporation Street, in 1906 on a 99-year lease period. The property, on 1 bigha 5 cottah land, was given to a British merchant and the lease title was subsequently passed on to the present owner of Roxy Cinema in 1945. Now, KMC wants to get back the property from the present lessee. According to KMC sources, the civic body now gets a mere `8,400 annually from the prime property.

The civic brass has now set a new target to augment revenue from this property. "We have decided to renew the lease agreement on our terms. We are in the process of calculating the new rent. If the owners agree, there is no problem on our part to go for a fresh agreement," said a KMC official. According to a management official of Roxy Cinema, they, too, were eager to ink a fresh agreement. "We recently held a meeting with the civic brass. We have shown our interests in the renewal of the lease period," the official said.

However, the civic body has set its eyes on Futnani Chambers for a steady source of revenue generation. KMC had leased out the property to Hindustan Cooperative Insurance Company on a lease of 99 years. However, in 1945, the property was sub-leased to Monturam, a Karachi-based businessman by Hindustan Insurance after its merger with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. In the process, some of the city's prominent hotels, restaurants, a shoe major, beauty parlours have opened their outlets in the three-storey building, which is spread over 9 bigha. How much does KMC mop up as revenue from such a prime property? According to a KMC official, the rent is negligible and revenue from this property could go up 100 times of that.

The municipal commissioner, Arnab Roy, is learnt to have taken a firm stance on this issue. Roy wants to take over the entire property and then bring all major business establishments housed at Futnani Chambers under KMC's property tax net. The civic authorities have already issued a letter to the LIC management giving details about the lease agreement, six months ago. "Now, we want to take over the property so that we can earn substantial revenue from the business establishments housed in Futnani Chambers," said a KMC assessment collection department official. According to an estimate, the civic body could earn in crores once the property reverts to it.