NEW DELHI: Facing a fund crunch with cautious buyers so far paying up Rs 103 crore out of their dues of Rs 3,600 crore and NBCC refusing to invest money, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to consider using its stress fund for construction of stuck Amrapali housing projects.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit directed the homebuyers to deposit their dues in the apex court by the end of January and granted a last chance to some entities, including Amrapali Group directors, to deposit the money they creamed off by diverting homebuyers’ money. It made it clear that the beneficiaries would be sent to jail like the CMD of the group in case they failed to comply.
After taking over the group and appointing a receiver to manage the affairs of Amrapali companies in July, the SC has passed directions to streamline the process of construction and handover possession of flats to over 46,000 homebuyers. The task of the constructing the buildings has been given to state-owned NBCC but the work has not started due to lack of funds. So far, the total amount raised is Rs 180 crore.
The estimated cost for construction of all housing projects is Rs 8,500 crore and amount recoverable from homebuyers and buyers of commercial areas is Rs 3,700 crore, 43% of the cost.
Though SC-appointed forensic auditors submitted that around Rs 11,000 crore is the recoverable amount which is enough to bear the cost of the construction, the fund is not available as the process of auctioning the group’s assets is on. Also, those who benefited from diversion of homebuyers’ money are not returning the funds despite court orders.
Observing that it cannot wait for long and some way out has to be found to raise funds, the SC asked the Centre to consider releasing money from its Rs 25,000 crore alternative investment fund (AIF), formed recently to provide relief to developers with unfinished projects.
The bench asked additional solicitor general Vikramjit Banerjee to seek instructions from the government on how much funds could be released for the construction of Amrapali projects.
Banks told to release funds to homebuyers
It also asked the court-appointed receiver and senior advocate R Venkataramani to hold talks with private real estate companies whether they would be willing to take over some of the projects and invest money.
Venkataramani told the bench that some banks are ready to plunge in and provide funds by taking the unsold flats of Amrapali as security and assured the court that he would finalise the modalities by holding consultations with them.
The court directed banks and financial institutions to release funds to home-buyers who have taken loans but payments were stopped due to delay in construction.
As per the forensic auditors’ report, there are around 5,229 unsold flats in different Amrapali projects and at least Rs 1,958 crore could be raised by selling them. They said the Group sold 5,856 flats at low prices and Rs 321.3 crore can be recovered from these flat-buyers.
NEW DELHI: Facing a fund crunch with cautious buyers so far paying up Rs 103 crore out of their dues of Rs 3,600 crore and NBCC refusing to invest money, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to consider using its stress fund for construction of stuck Amrapali housing projects.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit directed the homebuyers to deposit their dues in the apex court by the end of January and granted a last chance to some entities, including Amrapali Group directors, to deposit the money they creamed off by diverting homebuyers’ money. It made it clear that the beneficiaries would be sent to jail like the CMD of the group in case they failed to comply.
After taking over the group and appointing a receiver to manage the affairs of Amrapali companies in July, the SC has passed directions to streamline the process of construction and handover possession of flats to over 46,000 homebuyers. The task of the constructing the buildings has been given to state-owned NBCC but the work has not started due to lack of funds. So far, the total amount raised is Rs 180 crore.
The estimated cost for construction of all housing projects is Rs 8,500 crore and amount recoverable from homebuyers and buyers of commercial areas is Rs 3,700 crore, 43% of the cost.
Though SC-appointed forensic auditors submitted that around Rs 11,000 crore is the recoverable amount which is enough to bear the cost of the construction, the fund is not available as the process of auctioning the group’s assets is on. Also, those who benefited from diversion of homebuyers’ money are not returning the funds despite court orders.
Special fund for completion only for houses up to 2,150 sq ft
Apartments and villas with a carpet area of up to 200 square metres, or around 2,150 square feet, will be eligible for funding from the Rs 25,000-crore fund to revive stalled real estate projects, the government said on Thursday.
Observing that it cannot wait for long and some way out has to be found to raise funds, the SC asked the Centre to consider releasing money from its Rs 25,000 crore alternative investment fund (AIF), formed recently to provide relief to developers with unfinished projects.
The bench asked additional solicitor general Vikramjit Banerjee to seek instructions from the government on how much funds could be released for the construction of Amrapali projects.
Banks told to release funds to homebuyers
It also asked the court-appointed receiver and senior advocate R Venkataramani to hold talks with private real estate companies whether they would be willing to take over some of the projects and invest money.
Venkataramani told the bench that some banks are ready to plunge in and provide funds by taking the unsold flats of Amrapali as security and assured the court that he would finalise the modalities by holding consultations with them.
The court directed banks and financial institutions to release funds to home-buyers who have taken loans but payments were stopped due to delay in construction.
As per the forensic auditors’ report, there are around 5,229 unsold flats in different Amrapali projects and at least Rs 1,958 crore could be raised by selling them. They said the Group sold 5,856 flats at low prices and Rs 321.3 crore can be recovered from these flat-buyers.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit directed the homebuyers to deposit their dues in the apex court by the end of January and granted a last chance to some entities, including Amrapali Group directors, to deposit the money they creamed off by diverting homebuyers’ money. It made it clear that the… […]
