Ray of hope for 20K homebuyers as work begins in Noida’s ‘ghost town’

NOIDA: For nearly 20,000 Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) homebuyers, who have been waiting for the hand over of their flats for more than 13 years, a ray of hope has emerged as the work on at least 59 unfinished towers in the erstwhile ‘ghost town' begins to speed up.

In March this year, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the Mumbai-based Suraksha Group's bid to buy Jaypee Infratech Ltd and finish housing units in various stalled projects spread across Noida and Greater Noida. Suraksha is infusing Rs 250 crore in the debt-ridden Jaypee Group firm, along with a Rs 3,000 crore loan for completion of the flats over the next four years. Jayashree Swaminathan, a homebuyer who has seen the decade-old agony unfold in front of her eyes, is relieved that the wait will soon be over for most of the buyers.

“Despite Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL) still making frivolous appeals and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) officials meeting Suraksha Group to iron out compensation issues and other land dues, homebuyers are upbeat that the work on several unfinished towers is now in progress,” Swaminathan said.

“After the NCLT verdict, Suraksha does not need to pay a single penny to YEIDA on legal grounds. Yet, they are willing to compensate farmers to the tune of around Rs 1,689 crore, which the authorities have to take cognisance of and drive the momentum to deliver the pending flats as fast as possible,” she added.

YEIDA wants to recover Rs 1,689 crore from Jaypee Infratech or the takeover company Suraksha as 64.7 per cent hiked land compensation and Rs 6,111 crore as additional land compensation. To protect the interests of the farmers, YEIDA challenged the NCLT’s order in NCLAT, which directed the two stakeholders to settle the issue via meetings. Suraksha Group recently submitted a proposal to the Yamuna Expressway authority, agreeing to build around 20,000 flats and compensate the farmers, along with certain conditions.

In August 2017, the NCLT kicked off insolvency proceedings against the Noida-based realty major. As last reported, there were 18,767 active homebuyers who paid a collective principal amount of Rs 8,676 crore. Nearly 413 homebuyers cancelled their bookings and their refund worth Rs 64 crore was still pending. Around 1,410 buyers were issued offers of possession valued at Rs 528 crore, but no registration took place. Hoping to put her daughter in a nearby law school, Swaminathan booked a 2,100 sq ft apartment in Kensington Park Heights – a Jaypee property – in 2009.

“I could not fulfil the wish of my parents, especially my mother, of living together in our own abode. I am still living on rent in Delhi. The whole objective of buying this property is lost for which we paid through our noses. We are extremely tired of the legal battle,” Swaminathan said.

There are several frustrated Jaypee buyers who stopped paying EMIs, as they just could not afford to pay both the rent and the EMI. Several Army officers spent their entire retirement benefits to book flats in Jaypee Wish Town and other properties and are still living in rented premises. “My heart goes out to those who lost all hopes, their family members died in the last decade, as they waited for their flats. This is the biggest irony of their lives, and mine too,” said Swaminathan. (IANS)

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