The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) is going to invite e-tender for the sale of 151 leasehold commercial properties and 38 leasehold residential units from July 14.
During last three months, the board has conducted three e-auctions for its 109 freehold residential properties. A total of 76 properties have been sold so far and the remaining will be included in the next e-auction. Many more vacant properties have been identified and the same will be included in the next etenders for the first time.
The exercise of identifying vacant and dispute free properties of CHB was recently started after the directions of CHB’s chief executive officer (CEO) Yashpal Garg.
The CHB staff had identified four commercial properties (leasehold), 15 residential properties (leasehold) and 14 residential properties (freehold). It was decided that these 33 properties will be included in the list of properties which will be put up for auction in future.
The CHB had prepared a list of 270 properties, including 11 residential (leasehold), 109 residential (freehold) and 156 commercial (leasehold), for sale.
To get a good response, the CHB had reduced the reserve price of the properties by 10%. Not even a single bidder expressed interest in the auction of CHB properties held in 2019 as the reserve price was too high for both residential and commercial properties.
This time, the CHB had decided to replace the e-auction process of selling properties with the e-tender process. In e-auction, the earnest money deposit (EMD) for participation cannot be paid online. The bidder deposits the same in the CHB account and submits a proof. The payment is confirmed by the CHB officers before allowing the bidder to participate in the e-auction process. Hence, number of bidders for property and their identity is not fully confidential.
However, in e-tender process, the EMD can be paid online and there is no need of any approval and hence there is complete secrecy about the number of bidders and their identity.