NEW DELHI: Builders in Noida are unable to hand over more than 30,000 completed homes to their buyers, because of a National Green Tribunal order forbidding the Noida Authority from giving completion certificates to projects within a 10-kilometre radius of the Okhla bird sanctuary.

Developers in Noida say they have in the past seven months since the tribunal’s order lost close to Rs 1,000 crore as they have been holding on the flats, paying interest on their loans as well as penalty to home buyers.

“Everyone is bleeding,” said Vineet Gupta, director of the Ajnara group, which has around 1,500 apartments waiting to be handed over to buyers. Projects of more than 45 developers including Jaypee, Amrapali, ATS, Logix and Ajnara have been impacted, with buyers demanding penalty from them for the delay.

“When the state government has recommended 100 metres around the sanctuary as the eco-sensitive zone then why doesn’t NGT (National Green Tribunal) allow the authority to give us completion certificates,” asks Getambar Anand, managing director of ATS Infrastructure and also the president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai).

“Such a lot of stock has been put at jeopardy because of the decision, notwithstanding the fact that all of us have environment clearances for our projects.” A senior executive at Amrapali Developers said the company has 5,000 apartments ready for possession but it can’t offer physical possession to buyers. “We have sent them intimation for possession sometime back but we can’t give them their homes,” he said, not wanting to be named.

Real-estate developers have been facing a liquidity crunch over the past 12 to 18 months because of a slow economy and the consequent weak sales of apartments. According to property research firm Liases Foras, in the December quarter, unsold inventory rose to about 650,000 apartments, which would take more than 30 months to be sold. That number went up to 700,000 by the end of March 2014.

The situation in Noida puts further pressure on the stressed balance sheets of many developers operating in the area. “There is so much confusion even around how to measure the 10-kilometre radius. No one in Noida is getting completion certificates whether they think they are in the zone or not,” said Ajnara group’s Gupta. Some developers say it has become difficult to launch new projects.

“We are finding it difficult to launch new projects in the vicinity of the sanctuary because investors and banks are reluctant to fund such projects till there is clarity on the matter,” said Shakti Nath, managing director of the Logix group, which has put three of its mixed-use projects on the backburner due to the issue.

In October last year, the tribunal had directed the Noida Authority to stop all construction activity within 10 kilometres of the sanctuary and asked the central government to fix the rules on the distance to be kept for such developments from wildlife sanctuaries.

The Centre then asked state governments to suggest rules for sanctuaries depending on how fragile they were. In February this year, the Uttar Pradesh government sent its recommendation for deeming 100 metres as the eco-sensitive zone. “We should be given instructions about who to go to rather than dealing with multiple authorities,” said Anand of ATS Infrastructure.

Source: ET Bureau by Ravi Teja Sharma,

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