As many as 1,269 villagers are awaiting payment to the tune of Rs 212 crore for their 1,249 hectares of non-cultivable land that has been acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) on behalf of the state government. Curiously, this stretch of arid land lies almost contiguous to huge tracts of highly fertile land that grows cauliflower, beetroot, onions and potatoes for Pune and even Mumbai.

With the entire payment to be made in one lot in the next two weeks, the few nationalised banks that have branches in the region — Union Bank of India, State Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra — have started wooing these unlikely inheritors of wealth with investments plans of many genre. Unfazed by all the attention, the villagers are making their own plans — purchase of cultivable land in slightly distant villages being one of the prominent ones.

Baba Shinde, an onion trader from Nimgaon, and his three brothers are looking forward to the compensation for 40 acres. At Rs 17 lakh a hectare, he and his brothers will be paid Rs 2.75 crore. “Much of this money will be used to buy fresh land since that is the best investment right now,” he says, waving at the sprawling terrain of uncultivable land that has suddenly unlocked value and proved a windfall for many. Shinde owns 12 more acres of cultivable land.

With news of the SEZ, land prices have skyrocketed to nearly Rs 40 lakh an acre, but no land is available locally and he has been looking up farmlands in villages 20-odd km away that are still available at Rs 3-4 lakh an acre.

Welcome to what will soon become an integral part of the Bharat Forge multi-product SEZ that will come up over 7,192-hectares spread over 17 villages. The first phase will see 1,700 hectares being acquired, including 550 hectares of government land, and is expected to act as a benchmark for the next two phases, covering the remaining 13 villages.

“The government will be issuing the cheques by the end of this month. It will be issued in one lot and not in installments. Once the land is acquired, then the rehabilitation and re-settlement policy will be executed. This unique package will ensure guaranteed employment to one member of the family as well as 15 per cent buyback of developed land,” says District Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh.

Like Shinde, 75-year-old Dhondiba Kale, former sarpanch of Nimgaon who parted with 23 acres, is counting the days although the Rs 1.6 crore will have to be shared with his brothers who are part holders of this untilled land. “If I were to deposit some money, it will be in a nationalised bank, not any cooperative bank”, he says, echoing the sentiment of many others in the village.

Hoping to cash in on such sentiment are the two branches of Union Bank of India — Shel Pimpalgaon and Varude. While the former is targeting Rs 45 crore by way of deposits, the latter feels it’s already well placed to woo the soon-to-be lakhpatis. “Out of our 4,700 depositors, 300-odd are from these four villages. Naturally, they’ll be looking at us and we’re kicking off a deposit mobilization campaign soon,” says S S Patil, branch manager, UBI, Varude branch.

The other banks that are getting into the fray with door-to-door campaigns, counselling sessions and promos are Bank of Maharashtra, SBI and a clutch of district cooperative banks.

According to Rajiv Jalota, CEO of MIDC, it’s among the unique packages wherein land is being acquired once the farmers gave consent after protracted talks. “The resettlement and rehabilitation policy too is different and the entire land acquisition has been of non-agricultural land, and with their consent,” he says.

Nobody at Bharat Forge Limited, which will hold 76 per cent stake in the SEZ, is willing to comment since not one inch of land is in its name yet. The land, being acquired by the state government, will be placed in the joint venture company that will be registered in the coming weeks.