Ludhiana Improvement Trust to find buyer for Rani Jhansi Road property

19 Aug 2021 CW Team

The Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) will make one last attempt to sell, lease, or rent out individual levels of a multi-storey property on Rani Jhansi Road. The LIT has introduced a new bidding strategy after a string of failed auctions due to a higher reserve price.

For a long time, the building's initial reserve price of Rs 197 crore rendered it unattractive to bids. No one turned up to buy it even after the price was reduced to around Rs 157 crore.

When Raman Balasubramanium (LIT chairman) came in 2019, he considered relocating his office there, but the local bodies department rejected the request due to an estimated rehabilitation cost of Rs 3 to 4 crore. After investing so much money, there was no assurance of a successful auction.

The 77-unit structure with a double basement containing restaurants, banks, showrooms, shops, and penthouses is now a ghost town with broken window glass. Street sellers take over in the evening to offer food, while guests park outside.

LIT Chairman Balasubramanium had proposed developing it into a basement parking for Ghumar Mandi as one of the several gimmicks the LIT had tried, but the plan failed. In April 2018, deputy commissioner Pardeep Agrawal, who was also the LIT chairman at the time, visited the structure and proposed to create a jewellery market within.

This location was given to the Internal Revenue Service for use as an office. A few years ago, the then Punjab deputy chief minister, Sukhbir Badal, had suggested a downtown project, which was intended to come up at the Ferozepur Road main office of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited after shifting Powercom to this unoccupied structure.

Image Source

Also read: Saturn Realtors purchases Kingfisher House for Rs 52 crore

Building Material

18 Sep 2025

Ambuja Cements Drags JSW Cement to Court Over ‘Kawach’ Brand

Ambuja Cements, part of the Adani Group, has filed a trademark infringement case against JSW Cement in the Delhi High Court, alleging that its rival copied the ‘Kawach’ brand with its new product ‘Jal Kavach’.Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued summons to JSW Cement and its subsidiary, JSW IP Holdings Pvt Ltd, while referring the matter to mediation. Hearings are scheduled to resume on October 15 if no settlement is reached.Ambuja, which registered the ‘Kawach’ trademark in 2019, argues that the term ‘Kavach’—meaning shield—is the distinctive feature of its branding. ..

Bentley Systems Named Innovation Partner of the Year 2025 by Afcons

Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering software company, has been recognised by Afcons Infrastructure Limited as its Innovation Partner of the Year 2025 at the Innovation Partners 2025 Felicitation Ceremony in Mumbai. The award acknowledges Bentley’s contribution to Afcons’ engineering digitalisation journey through an enterprise agreement providing access to over 250 Bentley engineering software tools. This adoption has enabled Afcons to accelerate project delivery, standardise digital workflows, and strengthen innovation across its infrastructure portfolio. Among key i..

SBI Sells 13.18% Stake in Yes Bank to Japan’s SMBC

State Bank of India (SBI) has completed the sale of a 13.18 per cent stake in Yes Bank to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) for over Rs 8,889 crore. The divestment is part of a Rs 13,482 crore deal finalised in May with SMBC and seven private banks.Following the transaction, SBI’s shareholding in Yes Bank stands at 10.8 per cent. The deal, involving 4,134.4 million shares at Rs 21.50 each, is the largest cross-border transaction in the Indian banking sector.SBI Chairman C S Setty described the 2020 RBI-led rescue of Yes Bank as a pioneering public-private partnership, addi..