SC tells government company to complete Amrapali projects

NEW DELHI: There was good news on Thursday for around 43,000 home buyers who have invested hard earned money in Amrapali Group projects with the Supreme Court asking public sector construction company, NBCC, to take over the controversial realtor's unfinished schemes and complete them in a time-bound manner.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit, which on Wednesday took strong exception to NBCC chairman and housing secretary for taking up Amrapali projects without its permission and even summoned them, came to the conclusion that the corporation was best placed to protect the investors. The court directed the National Buildings Construction Corporation to prepare a comprehensive plan in 30 days on how it will finish the project and directed the group and its co-developers to keep their hands off for the time being. The court recalled its May order by which a detailed scheme was framed to complete the projects with the help of other real estate companies and gave NBCC the green signal.

Auditor told to track diverted money

After facing a tough time on Wednesday when the court directed attachment of all properties and bank accounts of the Amrapali Group, its 40 subsidiary companies and their promoters and directors, the group fielded advocate Gaurav Bhatia who told the bench that the builder is complying with the order and construction work on some of the projects had resumed with the help of co-developer. Bhatia also placed before the court account details and PAN numbers of all 40 companies and assured that the bank account number and property details of directors and promoters will also be filed. He said the group is not averse to NBCC taking over the project but the co-developers should be allowed to go ahead to complete the construction.

Advocate M L Lahoti, appearing for some of the home buyers, opposed his contention and told the bench that they had no faith in the company and all projects be handed over to NBCC.

The court, thereafter, asked the group to keep its hands off from all projects to allow NBCC to examine and frame modalities on taking over the projects.

It also directed the official auditor of the group to track diversion of Rs 2,765 crore of home-buyers' money. It asked Bhatia to provide all required documents and account books to the auditor.

Investors in various Amprapali housing projects have not been given possession and now face uncertainty due to insolvency proceedings. The court had earlier decided to supervise construction work. It had even framed a scheme for allowing another real estate company to complete the construction and set a time-frame.

The real estate giant is involved in construction of various housing projects which includes 170 towers in Noida and Greater Noida. The company required around Rs 4,300-4,900 crore for completing the projects.

As per an estimate around Rs 452 crore would be needed for five projects in Noida where partial possession has been given to buyers but investment was needed to install lifts and other essential infrastructure to make the buildings inhabitable. These projects are Amrapali Sapphire, Amrapali Zodiac, Amrapali Eden Park, Amrapali Silicon City -I, II and number of flats is 6,917.