YEIDA offers relief to stalled projects

GREATER NOIDA: The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has rolled out two policies that can be availed by construction companies by August 31 in an attempt to revive stalled projects in the region. The decision to offer restoration and reschedulement policies was taken during the YEIDA board meeting held on June 28.

Under the reschedulement policy, a builder will have to pay 5% of the due amount upfront. Once a revised repayment schedule is fixed, the developer will have to shell out an additional 5% of the due amount to YEIDA. To restore a cancelled plot, a developer will have to pay 10% of the current land premium to the authority.

All payments have to be made by August 31 and applications seeking restoration of plots would be discussed in the next board meeting, officials have said.

Over the years, developers who have taken land from YEIDA to construct highrises owe nearly Rs 4,000 crore to the authority. Currently, 10 group housing and township projects are in different stages of construction, apart from Jaypee Sports City project, in the expressway region. More than 17,000 buyers have invested in these projects and are waiting to get possession of their houses. While 12,000 units have been floated in the 10 housing projects, 5,000 units have been offered under the Jaypee Sports City project.

“Developers and construction companies will have to pay a certain amount upfront. We will process the applications once we get the minimum amount and then, we will issue a revised payment schedule for them,” YEIDA chief executive officer Arun Vir Singh said.

From August 2012, soon after the 165km-long expressway became operational, private developers started launching projects in Greater Noida and Dankaur areas. Between June 2010 and March 2015, 31 developers, including Jaypee Group, bought land from YEIDA to develop highrises along the highway.

But later, many builders surrendered their land or lost it after failing to clear dues. According to officials, the restoration policy can be availed by Jaypee Group as well. Three more developers who lost their project for non-payment of dues are also eligible. “But payments have to be made by August 31,” Singh said. At present, YEIDA has no estimate of the number of units that the three developers have sold.
YEIDA offers relief to stalled projectsThe Uttar Pradesh president of realtor’s body, Naredco, RK Arora, said: “Soon after the Gajraj case order in October 2011 when it was decided that compensation to the tune of 64.7% will have to be paid to farmers, more than 700 owners who had to part with their land in the Yamuna Expressway region had moved courts and different forums. YEIDA was unable to hand over plots to developers for four-five years.”

He added that for some projects, basic amenities like water supply pipeline and sewerage or electricity connections were not provided on time.

“YEIDA kept asking for land premium, along with the interest amount. We have approached the UP government seeking zero period benefit for developers so that they are exempted from paying up the interest component for the period they could not get possession of the land awarded to them,” Arora said.

He said that introduction of the new policies is a welcome step but each case will have to be looked into for such issues.YEIDA officials said developers’ concerns have been forwarded to the state government. “These are legacy issues and cannot be decided at our end without any directive from the state government. Our revenue projection and collection might get affected because of old issues and we need to keep the government in the loop for such matters,” said a senior YEIDA official.

Gwalior resident Rajendra Singh, who invested in a project in the YEIDA area, said: “I had bought a plot in Lotus City through a broker. The project was floated by 3C. I paid Rs 1.8 lakh as booking amount in 2015. But the broker kept deferring my site visits. He did not even give give me an offer letter.“