Amrapali project under supervision of Supreme Court

 Lessons from Implementation of Supreme Court monitored Amrapali Housing Projects 

By:

Dr VK Bahuguna

(Formerly:  Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Govt of India and Principal Secretary Government of Tripura)

In a country like ours the biggest aspirations of a middle class family is to own a house or a dwelling unit for which they sacrifice their present and save money to fulfil their dream.  With the rapid urbanizations now compared with 1950 when only 17 % of the population of India was living in cities now in 2024 more than 35% of population is living in urban areas. There has been a big push for the housing real estate business in the country during last 20 to 25 years. The housing societies mushroomed with the creation of urban local bodies in most of the districts in states like NOIDA authority in NCR and similar agencies in Gurgaon and Faridabad etc. These agencies and authorities were purported to be the harbinger of well planned housing and civic amenities at reasonable costs. However, the builders lobby convinced the powers that be in the name of professional management and superior technology replacing the society oriented approach to auction oriented approach thereby increasing the costs of flats/houses to many fold and paved the way for mushrooming real estate companies without checks.  

One such project run by the thugs of Amrapali in NOIDA had not only swindled the money of around 45,000 buyers but left the projects bankrupt. The Supreme Court in 2019 in an epoch making historical judgement which surely be remembered as one of the finest moments of Indian jurisprudence and validation of constitutional rights of giving relief to thousands of flat buyers in a single decision. It happened when the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments the executive arm of our constitution coincidentally or deliberately proved totally incompetent in handling the swindlers leaving the flat buyers in a lurch. This decision of the Apex Court in 2019 marked a turning point for more than 46,000 homebuyers affected by the Amravati’s defunct projects in NOIDA and Greater NOIDA. The Court appointed a Receiver; and vested with him control over the group’s assets and properties, tasked with coordinating their sale, managing funds through a consortium of Banks and ensuring completion of the projects. The National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) was appointed to undertake construction of all unfinished flats.  

The NBCC had since then made positive strides in completing the projects. According to estimates more than 16,000 flats are ready and around 6000 flats either had been handed over or waiting to be handed over. However, one of the key aspects is execution of projects as per the detail original master plan and the quality of construction and the key promised facilities/infrastructure before handing over and for this the essential requirement is proper supervision and monitoring. The recent social media statements by buyers is an indication that everything is not hunky-dory and the learned Receiver who had so far done excellent job in handling the projects need to reassess with NBCC and buyers representatives to sort out the unacceptable delays and rumours of  harassment of buyers. 

Let us discuss some of the key issues the NBCC and the Receiver office need to take note of without further delay. First, there are serious complaints on quality of works in projects, and undue delay in creation of approved facilities and deviation from some of the planned work. NBCC had not diligently checked the quality of constructions before handing over resulting in complaints. For example, the quality of Johnson’s lifts & their maintenance is not good and no cameras were installed in lifts despite promise made by them. Inspite of opposition from buyers the NBCC is determined to use the space marked for dispensary in the Centurian Park Terrace Home project for other purposes. 

Second, in Receiver office there are cases where the verification of completed flats is pending since Novemember 2024. This delay in verifying the payment and other details before handing over the flats is an irritant because this should be done by NBCC only as they have all the detailed which can be shared with Receiver office simultaneously and creating this yet another bureaucracy in Receiver office which is already short staffed is uncalled for. All records can be simultaneously updated in Bank, NBCC and Receiver office as most of the payments except a few are made electronically.  

Third, the instruction issued by the Receiver office recently regarding stopping the transfer of flats before registration ostensibly to prevent brokers to play around is not desirable. The flat owners have waited for more than 15 years and must have the freedom to decide on sale for which Receiver office was rightly charging transfer fees to create an additional income for the particular project. The Receiver office should rescind this order and make provision for clearing the transfer within a week’s timer so that the crowd and agents do not hover around his office. This at present takes several days and even months. 

Fourth, the NBCC had decided to construct more flats for garnering funds for the projects by using excess Floor Area Ratio. However, the NBCC have floated the tender for bulk auction sale of 85% flats to the interested real estate firms for marketing which is likely to increase the cost of flats to manifold as many intermediaries will sprang up. The primary aim of the project is to provide affordable housing and this decision will sprang up many intermediaries. Then the question is who will be allocating the balance 15% flats at the base price and it is bound create allegations of nepotism and favouritism. In fact the there is no reason why to reverse the way NBCC sold inventories through consultants like they did in O2 valley. This should be revisited by the Receiver and the Court if need be.

Fifth, the Residential Adhoc bodies have not been provided with sanctioned layout, maps, statutory clearances certificates, fire NOC, lift NOC, pollution certificates, reports of construction etc by NBCC. Why to shy away from this? This is a major cause of concern in all Amrapali projects as also the absence of buyers’ representatives in the monitoring system. The NBCC must form a project wise monitoring committee with buyers’ representatives so that implementation is smooth and the honourable Court should give direction for transparency and smooth execution. If these suggestions are incorporated by project authorities, this unique intervention by the Supreme Court will lay the foundation of fair, accountable and transparent governance by the executive in such matters in future. 1054 words