Homebuyers left stranded due to unfinished housing projects in Noida and Greater Noida could get some answers soon as the high-powered committee set up by the Uttar Pradesh government to resolve their issue has submitted its report, Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Hardeep Puri said.
The committee is chaired by MoHUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra. While Mr. Puri refused to discuss what recommendations were made by the committee in its report, he said the Centre has received a request from the Haryana government to set up a similar committee for stalled projects in that State as well.
“In fact, one Cabinet Minister suggested that what we have done for UP must be done for the whole country,” Mr. Puri told reporters on the sidelines of a real estate industry conference on Wednesday. “But we must have the capacity to deal with it.”
NBCC, a state-owned construction company under the Ministry, is also preparing to submit a “concrete proposal” to the Supreme Court on September 4 regarding the projects of real estate major Amrapali, which has failed to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 buyers. “Let us wait and see what the court says, and then take it step by step,” said Mr. Puri.
Apart from Amrapali, other major developers with stalled projects include the Jaypee Group, Unitech and The 3C Company.
He also said policy decisions were needed on the question of gap funding for unfinished projects.
“You want the builder to go away and you want the government to give the funds? This is something on which you need policy decisions,” he said. “Let us say that a project requires funds x. Does the promoter have those funds x? If not, how much? Where will it come from? These are not questions for the Minister to answer. You have to take all the stakeholders along on that.”
In the long-term, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016, will protect consumer interests and ensure that future homebuyers do not sign one-sided contracts, said the Minister.
“As RERA mechanism is being established by States, all projects will get covered,” he said. “In my view, once RERA is established and takes off, there will be a demand that all real estate projects should come under the purview of this law.”
At present, all ongoing projects, which do not have completion or occupancy certificates, are required to comply with the law.
