MTDC gets 99-year lease to give facelift to Ambazari lake, garden

State Cabinet, in its meeting held in Mumbai on Tuesday, gave nod to a proposal for extending the lease of Ambazari land to Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) from 30 years previously to 99 years now. The entire 44 acres of land of Ambazari lakeside was with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), but the title was in the name of the State Government.

Accordingly, Revenue Department had submitted a proposal to get this land for beautification and redevelopment project. In June 2017, State Government decided to lease out 19 acres of Ambazari lakeside land to MTDC to carry out makeover of the area. In 2018, NMC handed over the possession of the said land. However, previously, the said land was to be leased out to MTDC for a period of 30 years. MTDC was supposed to pay lease at the rate of Re 1 per annum.

It was decided that the land would continue to be with NMC, and MTDC would invest Rs 9 crore in the Ambazari redevelopment project. As per the plan, MTDC would create various amenities including club house, food zone, urban huts, amusement park etc. In rest of the area, NMC would create certain amenities. All this was to be done to make Ambazari garden and lakeside a tourism destination. As per the State Cabinet decision taken on Tuesday, now the lease period has been extended to 99 years.

MTDC had conveyed to the Government that the project would give a boost to tourism and create employment opportunities. Since the last State Cabinet decision, MTDC had invited expression of interest from the entities interested in the project to develop, operate, and maintain Ambazari garden and lakeside. The estimated cost of the project, which is to be executed on public-private partnership basis, is worked out to be between Rs 75 crore and Rs 100 crore. NMC will continue to operate the garden till the operator takes over possession of Ambazari land.