Ludhiana Improvement Trust to find buyer for Rani Jhansi Road property

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