Vadodara: Cash-strapped Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is looking to auction its plots for a lease of 99 years. But till the last day of submitting the earnest money deposit (EMD) to participate in the auctions, only one person approached the civic body.The VMC was hoping that it would get a good response to its move for auctioning the plots and had put up hoardings in this regard in different parts of the city. The civic body had in the budget for the current financial year projected that it would raise Rs 300 crore through auction of the plots.The opposition in VMC had earlier pointed out that the civic body never met its targets of selling plots and yet kept including revenue from it in every budget. The civic administration had defended this by saying that land was an appreciating asset and it was justified if the civic body could manage its finances without auctioning it.The civic body also maintained that it would rather hold on to its existing plots as it was not getting new ones. For the last few years, the VMC has not been able to get any new plots as its town planning schemes were stuck. It is now hoping that the schemes will get through and it will have more plots at its disposal.In-charge land and estate officer (commercial) Suresh Tuver confirmed that only one earnest money deposit was received by the civic body till Wednesday, the deadline for doing so. Sources said that some of the realtors were of an opinion that the prices quoted by VMC were on the higher side.But a major issue has been the fact that the realtors have to pay upfront for such plots whereas in other deals, they get time to make the payments. Also, the amount has to be paid in white to the civic body. The civic body had planned the auction on July 3, but it seems that this may not happen now.

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