NBCC to finish and deliver all 22,000 flats in Amrapali projects by end-2024

The state-owned NBCC (India) Limited, formerly known as National Buildings Construction Corporation, on Thursday said it will complete the remaining 22,000 apartments in Amrapali Group’s delayed housing projects in Noida and Greater Noida by end of 2024 and hand over possession to homebuyers.

The NBCC said it will raise around 15,000 crore funds by selling around 13,500 soon to be launched apartments in five housing projects in Greater Noida. These apartments are to be built on the additional floor area ratio (FAR) it purchased from Greater Noida authority for 10,000 crore on Wednesday. These units will help NBCC earn surplus revenue in future, said officials in the know of the matter.

The Supreme Court, in July 2019, engaged the NBCC as project management consultant to undertake completion of stuck projects of Amrapali Group in Noida and Greater Noida, after homebuyers through a petition demanded the delivery of their flat in projects that were launched in 2010. The promoters of this group are currently in Tihar jail for various offences, including that of cheating, criminal breach of trust and money laundering, among others. Court receiver R Venkatramni is controlling the firm on the apex court’s directions.

“We are supposed to finish and deliver 38,500 apartments in Noida and Greater Noida. And 16,000 of these are ready. We have given handover of 6,000 apartments and registry has also been executed. The handover of another 10,000 apartments is in the process. We aim to finish and deliver 22,000 apartments by end-2024. The remaining units are under a separate scheme named Adarsh Awas Yojna and these will be completed by end-March, 2025,” said KPM Swamy, chairman and managing director, NBCC India.

Of the 14 stuck housing projects and one commercial project, five are in Greater Noida. They are Centurian Park, in Sector Tech Zone 4, Golf Homes in Sector 4; Leisure Park in Tech Zone 4; Leisure Valley in Tech Zone 4; and Dream Valley in Tech Zone 4, said NBCC officials.Amrapali Group’s projects in Noida — Sapphire, Princely Estate, Silicon City, Platinum and Zodiac — were partially ready in 2019 and around 12,000 buyers have moved into their respective flats.

The NBCC said in the beginning, they faced many challenges in procuring the requisite funds to keep up the pace of construction as per the delivery schedule that they had assured homebuyers.

“Initially, banks were reluctant to fund the Amrapali projects due to the insecurity that the realty sector faced back then. But with the help of the Supreme Court, we somehow managed to arrange funds to restart construction and deliver homes to aggrieved homebuyers,” said court receiver R Venkataramani, who is also the attorney general.

“We initially took a loan of 650 crore from SBI Capital with great effort to start construction work. Later, with the help of the Supreme Court, we arranged 1,600 crore from a consortium of different banks. We collected 2,200 crore from homebuyers and recovered around 2,000 crore by selling assets of Amrapali promoters,” said Swamy.

The NBCC India and Venkatramani said after the Greater Noida authority on Wednesday gave its approval to purchase additional FAR, from 2.75 to 3.5, the projects have become economically viable and there will be surplus income in the future. The NBCC will build an additional 13,500 apartments in Greater Noida’s five housing projects, sell them at current market rates and raise around 15,000 crore.

The NBCC will pay 590 crore to the Greater Noida authority that has approved 10,000 crore worth of FAR.

“We will spend 10,000 crore in building 13,500 new apartment in Greater Noida’s five projects without affecting the interests of existing buyers. And we aim to complete these additional units in 33 months. We will earn around 5,000 crore from this,” said Swamy.