VMC’s 2nd plot auction fetches Rs 49.67 crore

VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) conducted the second round of auction for its plots in the city and managed to sell five of the 24 plots that went under the hammer fetching Rs 49.67 crore.
The VMC had initially come up with a list of 26 plots for auction, but eventually listed 24 as there were issues of connectivity to one of the plots and another plot was to be used by the civic body itself. The auction saw the participation of only nine bidders and even some of them stayed away from bidding.
The civic body was expecting a good response in its second auction of plots as 12 bidders had turned up for the auction of 14 plots on August 23. Despite the larger number of plots available, the number of bidders went down this time around.
The auction on Friday saw takers for two plots each in Manjalpur and Gotri areas of the city as well as one plot in the Tandalja area. All the plots are earmarked for commercial use. The only plot that saw intense bidding was a 703 square metre (sq m) plot in the Gotri area of the city that went at a rate of Rs 77,300/sq m against an upset value of Rs 64,000/sq m.
The auction fetched VMC an amount of Rs 49.67 crore. The previous auction that had seen a similar number of plots being sold had fetched Rs 51.34 crore.
Sources said that the plots that have not been auctioned at the end of the first as well as second auctions will be taken up for auction again. These unsold plots may be sold as a part of the same list by the civic body.