In a relief to homebuyers waiting for their homes, the government’s construction arm – NBCC – has said that work on eight projects in Noida and Greater Noida by the embattled real estate firm Amrapali Group that include over 14,000 residential units is currently in progress and around 160 units are likely to be handed over in September.
Work on 16,000 units in Greater Noida commenced on August 24 following a bhoomi poojan ceremony in the presence of Supreme Court-appointed court receiver and senior advocate R Venkataramani, who has been entrusted with the task of managing the affairs of the Amrapali Group.
Work is currently on in eight projects in Noida involving 11,741 units in Silicon-1 and 2, Silicon-Crystal Homes, Sapphire I and II, Princely, Platinum/Titanium and Zodiac and three projects in Greater Noida- Centurian Park-Low rise and O2 Valley, Leisure Valley Villa and Dream Valley villas involving 2,666 units is in progress, NBCC officials said.
NBCC has started handing over of flats to homebuyers in these projects and around 160 units are likely to be handed over in the first week of September. As many as 73 units have already been handed over, the officials said.
NBCC has been directed by the Supreme Court to complete more than 46,000 homes.
“Currently, around 6000 workers have been deployed on these projects which may double in the next two months. The progress of work was badly affected by COVID-19 and the work is now progressing well as per protocols,” said PK Gupta, CMD, NBCC.
“All these works are likely to be completed from 9 months to 36 months in all respect. The completion of projects depends on timely deposit by homebuyers and arrangement of funds from other sources,” he said.
At a Supreme Court hearing last month, the apex court was informed by the court receiver and senior advocate R Venkataramani, who has been entrusted with the task of managing the affairs of the Amrapali Group, and Harish Salve, counsel for SBICAP, that an amount of Rs 1,050 crore may be released by way of funding for the stuck projects but there are issues with respect to monitoring the completion of projects and the fact that NBCC was not agreeable to a fixed price contract.
The apex court directed banks and financial institutions that had declared home loans taken by buyers as non-performing assets (NPAs), to release and restructure the outstanding amount due to the Amrapali homebuyers as per RBI guidelines. The amount would then be used to complete the construction of stuck housing units.
At an earlier hearing, the SC bench had granted NBCC immunity from any legal actions and being made a party in litigations saying it has been asked by the top court to complete the incomplete projects of Amrapali Group.
More than 40,000 homebuyers, who had invested in various Amrapali projects more than eight years ago, are yet to receive possession of their homes.
The estimated cost of completion of all these pending projects of Amrapali is approximately Rs 8,500 crore and NBCC, with the support of the apex court, has already completed and handed over two stalled projects while implementation of some more projects is in progress at present with the funds made available by the Supreme Court.
The apex court has also allowed the court receiver to sell the unused FAR in different projects in order to garner funds for the construction of stalled projects, which too would further ease execution work.
NBCC is involved in completion of 23 projects of Amrapali Housing, of which it has already completed and handed over two projects: Eden Park (Noida) and Castle (Greater Noida) comprising 618 units and valued at Rs 7.5 crore. Execution work in another eight projects -- seven in Noida and one in Greater Noida, having a total of 12,169 units and valued at Rs 618.08 crore -- is currently on.
It has also invited tenders for 11 more projects as per the directive of the court receiver. These include 10 projects in Greater Noida and one in Noida, comprising a total of 31,812 units and valued at Rs 6,815.76 crore.
SBICAP Ventures that manages the government's Rs 25,000 crore Special Window for Completion of Construction of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects Investment Fund (SWAMIH) for the real estate sector, informed the Supreme Court on July 10 that it had identified eight incomplete projects by embattled Amrapali Group located in Noida and Greater Noida.
On July 23 last year, the apex court had cracked its whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by homebuyers and ordered cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under the real estate law RERA, and ousted it from its prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.
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