The Maharashtra government decided on Wednesday to pay Rs 1,601 crore to acquire the iconic Air India building located in Mumbai's Nariman Point. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet in Mumbai. The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, also decided to waive off around Rs 250 crore unrealised income and interest on the property, an official said.
The building was constructed in 1974 on land owned by the state government, which will now use it for its office space. After the 2012 fire at Mantralaya, the state secretariat building in south Mumbai, four major departments public health, medical education, water supply and sanitation, and rural development have been operating from GT Hospital.
These departments, along with others, may be shifted to the Air India building, an official said. The 23-storey building is owned by Air India Assets Holding Limited, a company created by the union ministry of civil aviation in 2018 to manage all Air India-owned properties.
Nine floors of the building are vacant at present. Three floors house GST offices while the income-tax department has eight floors. The ground and first floors are currently with Air India, and the government has communicated to Air India Assets Holding Company that it should hand over the building free of encumbrances.
Built in 1974 on property held by the state government, the seaward-facing Air India tower is one of Mumbai's most recognisable structures. John Burgee of the Johnson/Burgee architectural company in New York constructed it. Burgee's impact on post-modern architecture was well-known.