Mumbai, Nov 18 (IANS): The Adani Group on Saturday denied allegations of irregularities in the Maharashtra government’s recent notification pertaining to modifications in the Development Control (DC) rules for the ambitious Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

In a statement, the Adani Group said that the allegation of favouritism is a "mischievous ploy to muddy the waters and divert attention from our goals of transformation urban development".

Denying irregularities in the DRP, the Adani Group said that transfer of development rights (TDR) is used to make a certain amount of built-up area available in exchange for land that is surrendered or relinquished, usually for an infrastructure project.

The TDR generation within the Dharavi Notified Area was permitted since the Government Resolution (GR) of 2018 and it was further modified in the GR of 2022, it said.

“Both these developments happened prior to the issuance of the 2022 tender, which was won through open and fair competition. In the present, all that the government is doing is currently notifying this as a due process,” said Adani Group.

The company was responding to certain reports suggesting that the recent policy changes would benefit the Adani Group in a big way.

The company has countered that contrary to the claims that these policy modifications are going to benefit a single entity, the final notification from the government has, in fact, capped the minimum usage of TDR in other projects at 40 per cent instead of 50 per cent, as stated in the GR of September 2022.

“Additionally, the government notification dated November 7, 2023 also puts a cap on the pricing of TDR. While there was no restriction earlier on the sale price of the TDR generated from the DNA, the government has now restricted the maximum sale price of TDR to be 90-percent of the ready reckoner rate of receiving plots to avoid any arbitrary pricing of TDR,” the Adani Group added.

It said that in order to make the TDR process fully transparent, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will develop a portal where TDR generated from the project will be uploaded and updated in real-time.

“The baseless and malicious allegations of 'tweaking' and 'amendments to suit selected bidders’ do not do justice to the regulatory transparency of the process,” the Adani Group said.

It may be recalled that in December 2022, the state government had decided to award the DRP bid to Adani Realty, headed by Gautam Adani, which had made a bid of Rs 5,069 crore for the mega-project, billed as the biggest redevelopment initiative of its kind in India.