Bengaluru-based Mantri Developers, on Friday, announced its plan to revive its residential project ‘Mantri Serenity’ in the city, having been chosen as the maiden beneficiary of the ₹25,000-crore SWAMIH Investment Fund, which is a special window formed by the Union government to ensure completion of stalled brownfield projects in the affordable housing/mid-income category.
However, the company did not disclose the size of the funding it received.
The fund pertains to the construction and completion of a project called Mantri Serenity catering to 3,000 homebuyers, on Kanakapura Main Road. It was started in 2012 but had stalled.
Homebuyers had recently registered a criminal complaint against the promoters and were also pursuing litigation at the Real Estate Regulatory Authority – Karnataka.
The funding comes less than a month after Bengaluru South MP Tejaswi Surya intervened on behalf of homebuyers and wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs urging steps to suspend passports of the promoters of Mantri Developers.
The MHA had referred the MP's letter to the Passport Seva Programme of the Ministry of External Affairs for “urgent appropriate action”.
On Friday, Mr. Surya said that in the interest of 3,000 families, he had requested Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman to sanction SWAMIH funds for completion of the project.
‘Last-mile funding’
Irfan A. Kazi, Chief Investment Officer, SWAMHI Fund, SBICAP Ventures, said, “Our mandate is to provide the last mile of funding required to complete affordable housing projects to ensure delivery of homes to buyers. We do not disclose the size of individual funding.”
With this, Mantri Developers hopes to turn the tide in the real estate market, which has been affected by a financial slowdown.
Sushil Mantri, Chairman & Managing Director, Mantri Developers, said, “With this financial closure of last-mile funding, we will be able to speed up the remaining construction and reach an early completion of the project so that we can deliver homes to our customers in the next 12-24 months, in phases.”
