Shree Ram Mills

Spread across 16 acres of land, before the 1982-83 strike, Shree Ram Mills had 6000 workers. It was declared as a sick mill and according to Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti; even after the revival package it was not modernised. By 1996 either the workers had resigned or taken the VRS.

The name of the Company was changed from Shree Ram Mills Limited to Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Limited in the year 2007 and now they are constructing Palais Royale, one of India's tallest residential tower over there.

Shree Ram Mills to Palais Royale - A Timeline

1900 Shree Ram mills was established by Bhogilal Meghraj and Co. Pvt. Ltd. The Meghraj group was in partnership with Premchand Roychand, the “Bullion King” of Bombay.

1947 Abhayakumar Kasliwal and Shambhukumar Kasliwal founded the S Kumars Textile group.

1965 Pratap Bhogilal was appointed managing director of Shree Ram Mills Ltd.

1976 The mill was acquired by the Kalsiwal family from Pratap Bhogilal. This was a few years before The Great Textile Strike of Bombay (1982).

1991 S. Kumars Synfabs Ltd. was established and later renamed to S. Kumars Nationwide Ltd. They became the leading manufacturers for school uniforms in Bombay. Changes to the Development Control Rules (DCR) that same year allowed mill owners to redevelop or sell their land provided the owner would hand over one third portion of the land to the BMC and MHADA respectively. BMC was to create recreational grounds for public use and MHADA was to build houses for mill workers according to the rules.

1997 SKNL acquired a spinning-cum-weaving unit near Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), from Standard Industries Limited.

1998 S.Kumars acquired rights for manufacturing and marketing the Reid & Taylor worsted suiting in India with Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador.

2004 Shree Ram Mill's Vikas Kasliwal, son of Shambhukumar, entered into a memorandum of understanding involving the 5 acre land parcel out of 16 acres at Worli with Kalpataru for Rs. 105cr. Within a year the sale turned sour as Kalpataru alleged that after making an initial payment of Rs. 30cr, the mill owners started to back out of the deal as they realised they could get a higher price from other developers. The Kasliwals said Kalpataru did not have the financial resources to make the purchase and had delayed arranging a bank guarantee and funds for the payment.

2005 Permits for construction were granted. Kalpataru approached the Bombay High court to restrain the mill owners from selling or transferring the property rights to a third party till the arbitration proceedings are complete.

2007 The company name Shree Ram Mills Limited was changed to Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Limited.

2008 The Kasliwal family split the S Kumars group while construction began on Palais Royale.

2010 Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Limited avails a loan of Rs. 950cr form Indiabulls Housing Infrastructure Ltd. with this project as collateral. Kalpataru the promoter for the project stands as guarantor to the loan.

2012 The construction of Palais Royale was completed making it the tallest building in India at 294 meters. Numerous flats were sold in advance for Rs. 25cr to Rs. 50cr. The developers also build a 15 storey BMC Public Parking Lot on the adjoining plot.

2013 NGO Janhit Manch filed a PIL in Bombay High Court against the developers in the presence of the BMC alleging FSI violations in the construction of the tower and the public parking lot. They questioned the large amount of fire refuge area outside the entrance of each flat granted by the BMC and claimed that the public parking lot was constructed without necessary permissions. 'Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure Limitedclaimed that the NGO was a proxy of Kalpataru Builders. Court orders a stay on further construction.

2016 A BMC inspection found that 74% of the total built up area (5.88 lakh sq.ft.) of the tower was shown as a fire refuge area. This was sanctioned by the then Chief of the fire department when the building plans were approved. The court ordered the demolition of the top 18 floors of the tower and to block the refuge areas outside each apartment. Meanwhile the arbitration ruling filed in 2005, went in favour of Kalpataru and the matter went to Bombay High Court.

2018 A division bench of the high court agreed with the arbitration ruling in favour of Kalpataru.

2017 The buyers of the flats approached RERA to ask for the return of their investments from the developers with 10.5% interest.

2019 S Kumar’s Reid and Taylor files for bankruptcy and is asked to liquidate. The Supreme Court overturns the Bombay High Court order and dismisses the appeal filed by Janhit Manch and directs the BMC to take over the public parking lot. India Bulls who had invested Rs. 950cr in the project and following a default by the Shree Ram Urban initiated the recovery proceedings under the Securitisation & Reconstruction of Financial assets and Enforcement of Security Interests (Sarfaesi) Act. Following a Bombay High Court order Indiabulls put up Palais Royale for auction through a public e-auction. The first auction fails with no buyers. A second auction takes place in November and a little known company based in Pune called Honest Shelters buys the tower for and largely undervalued price of Rs. 705cr. setting a completion and occupancy deadline for Dec 2025. Reliance’s Network 18 moves into a building in the Shree Ram mills compound, adjacent to the tower. This facility spread over 1lakh sq. feet is equipped with 9 uniquely designed studios and seating for 400 employees, making it the largest newsroom in the country.

2022 BMC issues part occupation certificate for ground plus 27 floors.

2025 As of June 2025, the building is still awaiting completion and the top 18 floors remain in question.