Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS) Maharashtra Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday approved the revised policy for extending the lease period of commercial use of surplus lands of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which operates state transport buses across the state.

According to the revised policy, the lease period of the MSRTC’s surplus lands has now been increased from 60 years to 98 years in two phases of 49 years.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had suggested that the government should extend the lease period for another 49 years after the review of the commercial use of MSRTC’s surplus lands, given for an initial period of 49 years. However, the cabinet ultimately decided to approve a lease period of 98 years in two phases of 49 years from the earlier decision of 60 years.

According to the government release, the increase in lease period will accelerate the development of the MSRTC’s proposed projects, especially with regard to the development and strengthening of bus stands and depots and also to further improve its services in urban areas, including metropolitan cities, for passengers and other stakeholders.

“Earlier, in 2001, the lease period for the additional lands in the possession of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation was 30 years. Accordingly, MSRTC launched 45 such projects in the state till 2016 under the Build, Operate and Transfer policy. According to that policy, it was proposed to set up modern bus stands at 13 places in the state. But it received little response barring Panvel and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar,” said the government release.

The government subsequently formulated a new policy in 2024 for the commercial use of MSRTC’s excess lands, where the lease period was increased from 30 years to 60 years. However, while preparing this policy, a committee of experts had noticed that the lease period of various corporations and authorities was 99 years.

Increasing this period increases the viability of the projects, and it was observed that MSRTC gets one and a half to two times more than expected advance premium.

Accordingly, the Board of Directors of the Corporation approved the extension of the lease period from 60 years to 99 years for implementing projects under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) at various sites owned by it, said the government release.

Following the MSRTC’s board approval, the cabinet approved the revised policy to increase the lease period from 60 years to 49 years plus 49 years, for a total of 98 years. The government hopes that this will improve the commercial viability of the exploitation of MSRTC’s surplus lands. The renewal of the agreement will be done as per the prevailing policy and rules.

–IANS

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