The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA)'s investigators are going to start site visits to around 15-16 real-estate projects from February 20.
The site visits will be held as the MahaRERA feels financial irregularities in many projects.
The MahaRERA has identified 300 such projects, and 15-16 projects will be visited initially.
Last September, Moneycontrol had reported that MahaRERA had prepared a list of 300 large projects, worth over Rs 500 crore each, where a significant amount had been spent but very little work had been completed.
A senior MahaRERA official, not wishing to be named, said: “We have given intimation to around 15-16 projects that we will visit on February 20. There are around 40-45 projects on the priority list. There are around 300 projects where we suspect financial wrongdoings and their worth above Rs 500 crore each."
How did MahaRERA learn about irregularities?
According to MahaRERA officials, developers have to maintain 70 percent of the total project cost in a separate escrow account, which has to be linked with the MahaRERA website in order to give quarterly updates.
Here, MahaRERA found that 300 projects have spent more than the declared construction work.
Scope of the probe
According to MahaRERA officials, the investigators will prepare a report on the progress of the construction work and related matters on the project sites.
The report will include details such as stages of construction, target date (added) of completion approved by RERA, target date set by the developer, and the opinion of the investigators as to when they feel the project can be completed, the official said.
Investigators will have to complete the inspection and submit the report as per the timeframe decided by MahaRERA. The majority of projects that need to be investigated are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune, and include a mix of lapsed and ongoing projects.
300 projects from 5,756 lapsed projects
According to MahaRERA officials, the 300 projects in the list are from the 5,756 lapsed projects in Maharashtra.
On 22 June 2022, MahaRERA Chairman Ajoy Mehta had announced the formation of a dedicated vertical for lapsed real-estate projects. The aim of this vertical was to get such projects moving either by getting the existing developer to take it forward, or by getting buyers to take over the project, or by roping in a new developer.
Moneycontrol had reported how in less than a year, the number of lapsed or stalled projects in Maharashtra have gone up by around 26 percent. The number now stands at 5,756, up from 4,555 in March 2022, according to data provided by the MahaRERA.
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