Mumbai developers' dream to mine gold from salt pans along the Eastern Expressway are unlikely to fructify as the Department of Salt at the Centre has thrown a spanner in their works.

Mumbai developers' dream to mine gold fromsalt pans along the Eastern Expressway are unlikely to fructifyas the Department of Salt at the Centre has thrown a spanner in their works.

According to a report in the Times of India, the department has warned developers about entering into secret agreements with salt manufacturers to commercially exploit large swathes of salt pans.

In a land-starved city, where even a pocket-sized area can fetch crores, builders are eyeing salt pans as the next golden opportunity even though salt pans, which are covered under the coastal regulation norms, are seen as no-development zones.

According to media reports in the past, several realty firms are signing agreements with salt manufacturers, who are mere lessees on the land and do not have any development rights over the land.

One such developer who wants to make a killing from these no-development zones is Mumbai's famous realty giant Shapoorji Pallonji. The realty major has tied up with the has tied up with the Garodias to build on the 500-acre salt land in Bhandup case the Centre decides to throw salt pans open for development, the Time of India reported today.

"The Memorandum of Understanding, said sources, involves Shapoorji paying close to Rs 500 crore to the Garodias for development rights. The Garodias would also receive 9% of the total built-up area," the ToI report said.

According to the report, Arthur and Jenkins Salt Works, which is located on both sides of the Eastern Express Highway, was leased by the Centre to the Garodia family to manufacture salt around 60 years ago but the salt department terminated the Garodias' lease about 10 years because they were cultivating grass and not manufacturing salt as the lease deed mandated. The centre-run department has now blown the whistle on this secret agreement and warned the public not to enter into any sale or lease agreement with regard to the plot.

However, such land grab attempts are nothing new. TOI had last month reported that there have been at least 1414 cases in Pen taluka of Raigad district, near the proposed international airport, 80km from here, where the realtor had lured cultivators to sign preliminary agreements.

Mumbai has 54,30 acres of salt panes, of which no more than 880 acres ( 16 percent) can be used for further development, according to a 2010 report prepared by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The report also pointed out that salt pans in Malwani, Pahadi, Ghatkopar, Chembur and Dahisar have no development potential. Of the 863 acres in these five locations, 389 acres are encroached upon. Unfortunately, over the last several decades Mumbai has lost its open space to developers for residential purposes, thanks to the builder-politician nexus.