Extension of Lease Period for Lands of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)

 Extension of Lease Period for Lands of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)

Lease period increased to 98 years in two phases of 49 years each instead of 60 years

The revised policy for commercial utilization of surplus land owned by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) was approved in today’s Cabinet meeting. According to the new policy, the lease period for MSRTC land will now be 98 years in two stages of 49 years each, instead of the earlier 60 years. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

This extension in lease period is expected to boost the development of proposed projects of the Corporation. It will help provide better facilities to commuters and various stakeholders at bus stations, depots, and in metropolitan and other urban areas.

Previously in 2001, the lease period for commercial use of surplus MSRTC land was fixed at 30 years. Accordingly, till 2016, the Corporation had implemented 45 projects across the state under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. Under the same policy, modern bus terminals were proposed at 13 locations in the state, but the response was limited. Only the projects at Panvel and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar received a favorable response.

Hence, a new policy was framed in 2024. In that policy, the lease period was increased from 30 years to 60 years. During the drafting of this policy, a committee of experts pointed out that lease periods of various other corporations and authorities were 99 years. It was observed that increasing the lease period improves the viability of projects and also results in MSRTC receiving 1.5 to 2 times higher upfront premium.

Accordingly, the MSRTC Board of Directors approved increasing the lease period from 60 years to 99 years for implementing PPP projects on various lands under its control. Based on this, the Cabinet has now approved that the lease period for commercial use of MSRTC land be made 49 years + 49 years = total 98 years instead of 60 years. Renewal of the lease shall be done as per existing policies and regulations.