New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday cleared the decks for the NBCC, a public sector undertaking under the central government, to construct nearly 8,000 additional apartments in six of the 24 stalled Amrapali projects in Greater Noida and Noida. Funds generated from the sale of these flats will be used to recover project costs and clear dues the bankrupt real estate developer owes Noida and Greater Noida authorities.
Amrapali had declared bankruptcy in 2017 and abandoned the 24 projects, leaving thousands of homebuyers in the lurch. Of the 24 project sites, unused land was available for development at six sites — Centurian Park, Golf Homes, Leisure Park, Leisure Valley, and Dream Valley in Greater Noida, and Silicon Phase-2 in Noida.
A bench of justices Bela Trivedi and Satish Sharma allowed the NBCC — appointed by the SC to complete the stalled Amrapali projects — to pay Rs 743.16 crore to Noida and Greater Noida authorities for purchase of higher floor area ratio (FAR) in two installments in January and March next year. FAR is the ratio between a building’s total constructed floor area and land area.
K P Mahadevaswamy, chairman and managing director of NBCC, told ThePrint, “This will help expedite the ongoing construction work. We will now get higher FAR ranging between 2.75 and 3.5. This will allow us to construct nearly 8,000 new flats.”
He added: “We are expecting nearly Rs 15,000 crore from the sale of these additional flats. This will be used to pay the loan taken from a consortium of banks, clear considerable pending dues of Amrapali to the two authorities and pay contractors for the ongoing work.”
On 26 August, a stakeholders’ meeting was organised on the court’s orders to finalise the plan for sanctioning of building plans of the six projects — five in Greater Noida and one in Noida.
According to the minutes of the meeting, seen by ThePrint, the NBCC will pay Rs 484.92 crore to Greater Noida authority and Rs 258.24 crore to Noida authority for the FAR in two installments.
At the meeting, it was also decided that the two authorities will approve the building plans of the proposed housing units within 30 days of the NBCC submitting all required No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from fire and other government departments.
Amrapali owes Noida and Greater Noida authorities over Rs 5,500 crore towards payment of lease money along with penal interest. To complete Amrapali’s 24 stalled projects, comprising 38,500 flats, the Supreme Court appointed NBCC as the project management consultant (PMC) in 2019.
While the NBCC is carrying out the construction work, it has been exploring options to raise funds to complete the stalled projects, which it aims to deliver by March next year.
Earlier this year, the Greater Noida authority had allowed NBCC to develop unused and purchasable floor area ratio in five of the projects. While GNIDA had originally approved a FAR of 2.75 in the Amrapali projects, NBCC has proposed that in five projects, where land is available, it should be increased to 3.5.
Also Read: Bank loans to higher floor-area ratio, how state-run NBCC plans to complete stuck Amrapali projects
Plan to build high-end apartments
The plan is to construct high-end and luxury housing units in the six stalled projects. The NBCC is in the process of finalising the design plan.
“Amrapali had proposed construction of housing units at the six sites, but the work on it didn’t start due to financial issues faced by the developer,” said NBCC chairman Mahadevaswamy.
He added: “We had requested the Noida and Greater Noida authorities to increase the FAR so we can recover the cost of the project. We have reworked the building plans for all six colonies and plan to construct high-end apartments. The construction work on these proposed 7,000-8,000 flats will be completed in 2-3 years, while the under-construction flats will be completed by next year.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: State-run NBCC coming up with 13,000 apartments at Amrapali’s vacant plots in Greater Noida