Central Bank of India has initiated the sale of Wadia Realty Pvt Ltd's 95-acre land parcel in Thane through an e-auction as lenders step up efforts to recover dues from the now-defunct Go Airlines India Ltd, also known as Go First, which is under liquidation. According to the auction notice, the state-owned bank, acting as the authorised officer on behalf of a consortium of secured lenders comprising Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda (including erstwhile Dena Bank) and IDBI Bank, has scheduled the e-auction for 20 August under the provisions of the SARFAESI Act. The property has been valued with a reserve price of ₹1,375 crore, while prospective bidders will have to deposit an earnest money deposit of ₹68.75 crore, equivalent to 5% of the reserve price. Notably, this represents a 30% reduction from the ₹1,965 crore reserve price set during an earlier auction attempt in June 2024, highlighting the challenges of monetising distressed assets even in India's prime real estate markets.
According to the sale notice issued by the bank, the lenders are seeking to recover ₹3,918.54 crore, representing the principal and interest outstanding as of 31 August 2023, along with further interest and other charges accruing from 1 September 2023. The auction will run online from 10 am to 6 pm on 20 August, with the last date for depositing the earnest money deposit set at 5 pm the same day. Bids will increase in multiples of ₹1 crore during the auction process. Legal experts note that such price reductions are common under the SARFAESI Act when initial auctions fail, with established precedents including the liquidation of Vijay Mallya's assets where lenders progressively reduced reserve prices before eventually finding buyers.
The asset comprises 95 acres of land situated at Village Ovale, Bhayanderpada, Ghodbunder Road, Thane, abutting a 60-metre-wide road, and is held in the name of Wadia Realty Pvt Ltd, the corporate guarantor and mortgagor for Go Airlines. Interested bidders will be allowed to inspect the property on 13 August, 2026, between 12 pm and 4 pm. The auction will be conducted through the Baanknet e-auction portal. According to local developers and land aggregators, developable land in the micro-market typically commands ₹15-20 crore per acre, with prices depending on proximity to Thane city, Hiranandani Estate and development restrictions near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The property is regarded as one of the more attractive large land holdings in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), expected to benefit from infrastructure projects including Mumbai Metro Line 4, widening of Ghodbunder Road, and the Borivali-Thane twin-tube tunnel.
On 20 May 2025, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had ordered the liquidation of Go First, marking the end of 20 months of insolvency proceedings for the struggling budget airline. Go First, which filed for bankruptcy in May 2023, had a 6.9% market share in India's aviation sector. The major reason why Go First was unable to revive is the Delhi High Court's decision on 26 April 2023, which directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to deregister the airline's leased planes, following a plea by lessors who sought to reclaim their assets. The Wadia Group-backed airline blamed the grounding of a significant portion of its fleet on the non-availability of Pratt & Whitney engines, which severely disrupted operations and strained its finances.
