mumbai in a city where slum encroachment is rampant even some of the biggest private landowners are helpless and have no option but to get rid of their prime real estate industrialist nusli wadia one of the top five private landowners of mumbai has put on the block around 20 acres of land in the western suburbs of maladthese land parcels belong to the f e dinshaw charities and f e dinshaw trust of which wadia is the administrator and are heavily encroached by slums the billionaire businessman and chairman of wadia group recently invited bids to sell these lands through open tenders on an as is where is and as is what is basis experts pointed out such a sale can seriously devalue the prime properties highly valuable plots in city stuck due to encroachmentsalthough the wadia group has a flourishing real estate company it has not dabbled in slum rehab projects said experts after nusli wadia put 20 acres of slumencroached land on the blockthe intention is to sell off these parcels to anyone interested in redeveloping the slums slum redevelopment is not for the fainthearted big developers in mumbai generally stay away from slum rehousing schemes such projects are messy because developers must deal with slumlords goons and politicians said a property market source a questionnaire sent to wadias spokesperson last week remained unansweredgulam zia senior executive director knight frank india said encroachments and slums have been one of the biggest problems mumbai landlords are struggling to resolve highly valuable land parcels are stuck only due to such settlements a few of the most influential and respected conglomerates have also failed to find a solution such players are also wary of hurting their image as these projects tend to turn ugly during resolution process an attempt to sell such land parcels on an as is where is basis can seriously devalue such land parcelsthe tender for sale of the f e dinshaw land announced in early november has set a reserve price at 25 of the ready reckoner rate which according to some land valuers toi spoke to translates into roughly rs 100 crorethe three plots put up for sale include a 44852 sq m land owned by f e dinshaw charities and 29935 sq m and 9931 sq plots owned by f e dinshaw trust all three aggregate to around 20 acres and are situated in village malad e taluka borivli these parcels are sought to be sold along with the encroachments in 2015 a slum authority survey revealed the nusli wadiacontrolled f e dinshaw trust held 683 acres in maladkanheri areaf e dinshaw was a parsi solicitorfinancer and land owner who died in 1936 he left a will bequeathing all property about 1500 acres in two undivided equal parts to his daughter bachoobai and son edulji the sons share was called f e dinshaw estate while his sister bachoobai set up the f e dinshaw public charitable trust to manage her sharewadia became an administrator