Chhabrias put Dunlop House on the block

Dunlop House, one of the prestigious addresses in Kolkata, is up for sale.

The 57B Mirza Ghalib Street office in Kolkata was the registered office of Dunlop India Ltd, the Indian arm of the tyre conglomerate that invented the modern pneumatic tyre.

DIL had been acquired by the late M R Chhabria and R P Goenka in the 1980s, and it later passed into Chhabria's control.

Till that time, it was India's largest tyre maker. It continues to be the only company with aircraft tyre technology.

Dunlop House is a historic property which witnessed the fortunes of DIL for nearly 100 years and has been put on the block by its present owners, the Chhabrias, a top property broker in the city said.

The building is expected to fetch around Rs 4,000 per square foot, but the property could yield more value if the low-rise structure was demolished and a high-rise built there, the broker said.

The building has 34,000 square feet of built up area on 47 cottahs of land just off Park Street. DIL recently moved its registered office out of the building to Kings Court not too far away.

Sources close to the management said DIL was in the midst of a rehabilitation programme. Funds from sale of the property would be ploughed back into the company so that closed manufacturing units could be reopened.

The units are at Sahagunj in Kolkata and Ambattur in Tamil Nadu.

DIL executive director P Balakrishnan had told the media some time ago that it is not possible to give a specific time frame for re-opening the two closed factories.

Workers of the Ambattur factory have signed an agreement with the management for its reopening. Balakrishnan had said that the rehabilitation scheme was still at a nascent stage.

The entire turnover of DIL in 2002-03 at Rs 26.68 crore (Rs 266.8 million) came from other income that included Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) from sale of land and building.

There has been Rs 30.65 crore (Rs 306.5 million) lying in the bank from the sale of various assets.

The Chhabrias had told the media some time ago that DIL expected to raise Rs 116 crore (Rs 1.16 billion) through sale of properties in cities such as Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Kolkata was expected to generate Rs 25 crore. This excluded value of a second Dunlop property at 62A Mirza Ghalib Street, which was gutted down in fire some time back.

The sale proceeds were to be used for reviving DIL, along with Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) to be brought in by the Jumbo group. DIL has also initiated the process of selling off properties at top locations in Kolkata.

The employees had accused the management of trying to sell properties without committing any funds for reopening of units.