The sole bid was declared invalid before tenders were opened. The bidder, Tamil Nadu-based Christy Textile Product Private Limited, failed to produce the mandatory Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of Rs 100 crore and instead forked out Rs 1 crore.

The poor response comes at a time when the NTC has reduced its reserve price for the land by 30%. When tenders for Finlay Mills were first invited in December last, the response was better. Even though the highest quotation then was far below the reserve price, it attracted four bidders with the highest Rs 405 cr by Nine Paradise Hotels Private Limited (an associate of DB Realty). The others were Parnee Developers (Satellite Group), RM Bhatter and Tata Realty and Infrastructure.

“The sole bid we received was bogus. Else why would someone give Rs 1 crore as the EMD when the amount is Rs 100 crore,” said K Ramachandran Pillai, chairman and MD of NTC Limited.

Pillai added the NTC might wait for another six months before putting Finlay Mill land on the block again.

The company, whose aggressive mill land auctions had once sent the speculative prices in Mumbai’s real estate market shooting up, will now have to put its Phase 2 of mill land auctions on hold.