Mumbai: One of the city’s most recognisable landmarks for decades, the Air India building at Nariman Point will soon lose the airline’s logo that currently crowns it. The Maharashtra government, which acquired the 23-storey building for ₹1,601 crore last month, plans to replace it with either the state government’s logo or the Ashok Stambha, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The state government also plans to refurbish a conference hall on the 22nd floor of the building to host cabinet meetings. At present, cabinet meetings are held either on the seventh floor of Mantralaya, at Sahyadri guest house, or, during legislature sessions, on the second floor of Vidhan Bhavan.
A senior official from the state public works department, which maintains the government’s buildings, said, “The Air India building has a grand conference hall on the 22nd floor, which was kept locked even when several floors of the building were given on rent. The hall will be refurbished, and the Maharashtra government will hold its cabinet meetings there. A meeting room and cabins on the 23rd floor will be for the chief minister.”
Built in 1974 as the headquarters of Air India, the national carrier at the time, the white marble-clad tower was one of the first structures visible while entering the business district of Nariman Point from Marine Drive. It was one of the targets of the 1993 serial blasts, when a powerful car bomb exploded outside the building, causing multiple deaths and injuries.
In 2013, after Air India shifted its corporate headquarters to New Delhi, the central government decided to exploit the property commercially by leasing out office space. Following the airline’s privatisation, the building came under the control of AI Assets Holding Limited, a government-owned special purpose vehicle that retained Air India’s residual debt, non-core real estate, art collection and subsidiaries.
After several failed attempts to sell the landmark property, the Maharashtra government, the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority emerged as prospective buyers. The state government eventually acquired the building for ₹1,601 crore last month. One of its last remaining occupants, the income tax department, has since vacated the premises.
The state government is now refurbishing the building, including new flooring, false ceilings, windows, escalators and lifts. A tender of ₹180 crore will be floated soon for the purpose, officials said.
Of the 23 floors, 20 will be used to house government offices, with two floors each proposed for 10 departments. Four departments—medical education, public health, rural development, and water supply and sanitation—have been functioning outside Mantralaya since the 2012 fire that severely damaged parts of the state secretariat.
Although an office for the chief minister will also be set up in the building, the chief minister’s office (CMO) and the offices of the two deputy chief ministers will remain in Mantralaya. Additional chief secretary (PWD) Milind Mhaiskar said the general administration department would decide which departments would shift to the new premises.
Meanwhile, the process of removing the airline’s logo has begun. The PWD’s Mumbai chief engineer, Pradnya Walke, is overseeing a design competition for the building’s new facade.
