The land of Krazy Castle amusement park will be handed over to MahaMetro on June 1 as Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) has decided to terminate the contract of Krazy Castle amusement park concessionaire Haldiram Foods on May 31.
The decision was taken at a board meeting of NIT held on Tuesday. MahaMetro had already started work on Krazy Castle as Haldiram has not raised any objection. The concessionaire had already itself dismantled a ride for allowing Metro contractor to dig the foundation of a viaduct pillar.
Ashwin Mudgal, acting chairman of NIT told “NIT is doing financial and legal vetting of the Haldiram’s contract. It will submit the report to divisional commissioner Anup Kumar. The three-member committee headed by Kumar will decide the compensation amount.”
Haldiram has demanded Rs162 crore from NIT. Its lease runs up to 2022 and hence it has sought compensation for loss of business for four years.
At present, it is not clear who will bear the burden of compensation decided by the Kumar committee. NIT wants MahaMetro to pay the sum while Metro officials want the state government to foot the bill.
In September 2017, MahaMetro had sought only half of the 6.4 acre Krazy Castle land. However, Haldiram objected to the proposal stating the park would lose its charm if its size was reduced by half. It demanded that MahaMetro realign its viaduct to prevent acquisition of the land. If this was not possible then the entire land should be acquired and Haldiram should be paid a compensation for loss of business.
MahaMetro rejected the demand to realign the viaduct. It pointed out that the alignment of corridor had been finalized through a gazette notification of central government. It would take another notification to get it changed, which was very difficult.
Metro officials then prepared a plan to shift the park rides in a way that they got their land and Krazy Castle also remained functional. However, Haldiram owners rejected the proposal.
In January this year, MahaMetro decided to seek the entire land from NIT. Gadkari held a meeting on this issue on February 27 and asked NIT to fulfil MahaMetro’s demand.
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