Construction Industry News
Attorney General R Venkataramani, the trustee of the Amrapali group projects, told the Supreme Court on Friday that he is facing resistance from the Noida and Greater Noida authorities in raising funds for the stalled projects and, if the situation continues, the management of the company should be handed over to the government of Uttar Pradesh.
Homebuyers have stated through their counsel that the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) has completed the construction of about 3,000 apartments left incomplete by the Amrapali group, but electricity and water connections have not been provided by the authorities of Noida and Greater Noida.
“I, as the court receiver and the attorney general, am doing everything I can to generate more money for the completion of the stalled projects, but Noida and Greater Noida have taken a position that unused FAR (floor area ratio) should not be sold,” Venkataramani told a bench of judges Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi.
Floor Area Ratio is the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the size of the land on which it is built. The FAR varies between cities and municipal areas.
Lawyers ML Lahoty and Anchit Sripat, acting for homebuyers, said that while the NBCC, which was entrusted by the court with the task of completing the stalled projects of the Amrapali Group of Companies in 2019, has completed about 3,000 apartments whose property cannot be are transferred to the buyers due to lack of power and water connections.
A supreme court headed by then Chief Justice UU Lalit, which had ruled on November 1 on the issue of selling unused floor area ratio (FAR) to generate funds for the stalled projects, was unable to make the ruling before his retirement.
On November 7, the bank headed by Judge Lalit said it had received a note from Venkataramani proposing to hand over the management of the Amrapali group to the government of Uttar Pradesh as it faced hurdles from Noida, the authorities of Greater Noida in raising funds to complete the projects.
Venkataramani had submitted that more money was needed to complete the stalled projects and despite home buyer payments, sale of unsold stocks and bank loans, the amount collected will be too low to move things forward.
The apex court in its verdict of July 23, 2019 had cracked down on the errant builders for violating the trust of homebuyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali group of companies under real estate law RERA and expelled it from prime properties in the national capital region (NCR) by abolishing land leases.
The highest court had also ordered an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged money laundering by the group's promoters.
In addition to the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Crimes Department (EoW) of the Delhi Police and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) are also investigating several cases brought against former officials of the real estate group.
