In a major relief to both home buyers and developers of group housing projects in the National Capital Region (NCR) amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Uttar Pradesh government has extended the deadline for completing projects by one-and-a-half years to December 31, 2021.
The earlier window provided to these projects, consisting of more than 100,000 housing units in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities, by the Yogi Adityanath cabinet in December 2019 expired on June 30, 2020.
Following the lockdown in March 2020, the work on housing projects had come to a standstill in NCR, and developers had urged the state to extend the deadline beyond June in the interests of both home buyers and builders.
Conceding to their demands and acknowledging the ground realities, the Adityanath ‘cabinet by circulation’ last week took the decision to extend the completion window to December 31, 2021.
This would provide the much needed relief to the developers in completing their projects without the spectre of defaulting on the deadline, which otherwise authorises the respective development authorities to, in extreme cases, cancel the land lease deeds and takeover the projects, thus leaving both the builders and buyers in a lurch.
Meanwhile, the government has also extended the window for getting the completion certificates without the levy of penalty for group housing projects by six months.
According to NCR-based realty consultant Venkat Rao, the value of the housing projects awaiting completion in the Noida and Greater Noida regions would be more than Rs 4 trillion spanning at least 100,000 units.
“The extension of deadline for getting the completion certificates by six months would greatly benefit those projects, which were already on the verge of completion, yet could not be completed due to the lockdown impact,” he told Business Standard.
Besides, the decision to provide an extended window of another one and half years would help developers in completing the projects without attracting the penal provisions of possible cancellation of the lease agreements, he added.
On December 3, 2019, the Adityanath cabinet had fixed June 30, 2020 as the deadline to complete housing projects pending since 2017 in Noida and Greater Noida regions to help the home buyers in realising their dreams of owning a house in the NCR.
At that time, UP industrial development minister Satish Mahana had said those projects, which were stuck owing to litigations at various forums, including the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and courts of law, or delayed due to the procurement policies, would benefit under the scheme, since the extension would be considered as a zero period.
The buyers were mandated to hand over completed units to buyers by June 2021. The cabinet had taken the decision on the recommendations of the sub-committee of ministers.