by THO
The Uttar Pradesh government’s public accounts committee (PAC) has cleared Noida’s Sports City project, which comprises premium group housing projects alongside world class sports facilities, in Noida’s Sector 150. The project has remained stuck since the past four years and with the PAC’s green signal, Noida authority has decided to lift the four-year ban imposed on the sale of plots, approval for mall, issuance of occupancy certificate and registration of flats.
Also Read: State-level committee may probe Noida Sports City issue
The PAC, consisting of MLAs, on July 24, 2023, started reviewing the issues of realty projects and also sought the current status of projects being developed by at least 24 developers, including Tata, Godrej, ATS, ACE and Samridhi, among others, after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) raised objections and said developers started housing projects without developing the class sports facilities in each of four Sports City projects, causing a loss to the exchequer.
The Sports City scheme – the back story
As per the terms and conditions of the project, developers were to raise housing on 30% land and sports facilities on the remaining 70%. The CAG raised objections stating that violation of terms caused a financial loss to the state as the developers got the land at cheaper rates in the name of raising sports facilities and they did not develop any sports facilities, said officials.
The developers maintained that they could not develop sports facilities because they could not get the adequate land due to dispute with farmers.
According to rules, the PAC had to look into the financial irregularity issues in Sector 150 Sports City land and three other Sports City projects after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) raised financial loss issues during the allotment.
Also Read: Sports City: Noida authority did not provide land as directed by court, developer tells HC
“So far, the PAC has resolved three objections raised by the CAG with regard to Sector 150’s GH02 Sports City project. As per the rules, now the authority will take a proposal pertaining to that project in the upcoming board meeting, the date of which is yet to be decided. The PAC will continue to look into the financial issues raised by the CAG in other three sports city projects,” said Lokesh M, chief executive officer of the Noida authority.
Three objections raised by CAG
The three objections that the CAG raised were related to irregularities in the allotment procedure, allotment rate and sale of plots that came to fore during the CAG audit, said officials.
The CAG has been conducting audits in all projects since 2012 in Noida and it raised several issues including anomalies in the Sports City scheme and the way the developers were carrying out the construction, said authority officials.
Homebuyers worried
The homebuyers are also worried about the fate of their dream homes as 20,000 of the proposed 30,000 housing units have already been sold in this scheme.
“For the past three years, we have been made to wait by the UP government and the authority without any decision being taken on the issues affecting thousands of homebuyers. If the authority made the allotment and allowed the developers to work at the site, why put a halt on registry or transactions midway?” said Manmeet Kaur, a homebuyer, who booked a flat in Sector 150.
This is what real estate developers have to say
The developers said they hope that the government will revive this delayed scheme affecting thousands of innocent buyers.
“We hope that the authority will lift the ban on transactions, approvals of building maps, registry permission and other property related works without further delay. However, we also demand that the state government and the Noida authority offer waivers on interests imposed over the past four years, when approvals were banned. The realty firms suffered huge losses because we kept paying the interests on land cost dues to banks during this ban period. The authority must give us additional time to build projects,” said Dinesh Gupta, secretary, Western Uttar Pradesh chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, a builders’ lobbying group.
