Air India puts more than 50 realty assets for sale

Air India Ltd is offering to sell more than 50 properties and land parcels as the cash-strapped flag carrier makes a renewed attempt to achieve its aim of raising about ?500 crore from such divestments this fiscal. The real estate assets that have been put on the block include those that remained unsold last February because of their high reserve prices and overall tepid industry demand. Air India has put up for auction apartments in Bandra, Mahim, Khar, Colaba, Cuffe Parade, and Malad areas of Mumbai, Bengaluru’s Indiranagar, Navrangpura and Memnagar localities in Ahmedabad, as well as properties and land parcels in Kolkata, Pune, Bhuj, Goa, Gwalior, Trivandrum and Nashik among others, it said in an advertisement in a national daily on Thursday. The loss-making airline is tapping state-owned MSTC Ltd, which specialises in conducting e-auctions to divest the real estate assets. E-bids for the properties—comprising mostly residential flats and land plots—can be submitted until 12 October. “Air India hopes to raise at least ?500 crore from the sale of its real estate assets by end of the current fiscal ,” said a senior airline official, who did not want to be named.