Surat: The Surat Municipal corporation (SMC) on Tuesday evening held first consultation meeting with over 80 shop owners whose land is likely to be acquired for setting up of the Rs 5,000 crore Multi Model Transport Hub (MMTH) near the existing Surat railway station.SMC, that held the meeting on behalf of the Indian Railways presented two options before shop owners. First option is of having 60% of the present land in form of shops on ground floor on the back side of the MMTH. Second option is they will get shops on the front side of the hub, but allotted either second, third or fourth floor.Jivan Patel, director of planning at SMC told TOI, “Majority of the shop keepers want compensation in cash. That will be decided by the SMC as per the BPMC Act or by district collector once space is acquired by the collector as per law.” Currently, 7,000 sqm railway land and 1,810 sqm SMC land is occupied by 160 shop owners or tenants. A total of 2.54 lakh sq m land is earmarked for the project. Indian Railways has 63% share, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation 34% and SMC 3% stake in the SPV (special purpose vehicle) Surat Integrated Transport Development Corporation Ltd (SITCO) formed for the project.MMTH will come up on 50,000 sqm land in three years and in another five years other commercial developments would be planned according to the private partners plans on th remaining land.

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