Noida: Noida Authority has decided to keep UP govt’s rehabilitation policy for stalled real estate projects in force, extending its benefits even to developers who have not yet deposited the mandatory 25% of their recalculated dues — a move that offers fresh hope to thousands of homebuyers waiting for completion and registration of flats.The Authority had earlier planned to withdraw the policy benefits from non-compliant developers, but reversed the stance at its board meeting on Jan 3, choosing to continue with the state govt’s order from Dec 2023 to revive legacy stalled projects.
Authority CEO Lokesh M said though the policy would continue, there would be no blanket relief. “Requests from builders who did not deposit the 25% amount within stipulated timelines will be examined on a case-by-case basis and placed before the board for approval,” he said, adding there would be no automatic restoration of benefits and that any further concession would require explicit sanction of the board.According to the agenda placed before the board, 57 projects were covered under the policy, excluding Amrapali, Unitech and projects pending before NCLT. Of these, 36 projects deposited the full 25% of dues, 11 paid only a partial amount, four developers gave consent but made no payment, and six neither gave consent nor deposited any amount.Builders have so far deposited Rs 561 crore towards the 25% dues and partial payments, while overall collections, including instalments, stand at Rs 872 crore.The back and forth follows an earlier decision taken in the Authority’s 219th board meeting on Oct 3, when it decided to withdraw benefits in 19 cases where developers failed to deposit even the initial 25% by the cutoff date of Oct 24. In those cases, the accounts department began recalculating dues and issued fresh demand notices.But now, the board has decided to give these developers additional time, and would decide the future course of action if any of them come forward to deposit the 25% advance. The Authority also flagged that several projects remained under litigation or revision proceedings before courts, NCLT, or the state govt. In such matters, it said benefits could be considered only if pending cases were withdrawn or disposed of, and after dues were recalculated in line with govt orders granting zero period relief for Covid disruptions or NGT related construction bans.Even with the policy push, registrations remain sluggish.Of 21,034 unregistered flats across the 57 projects, permission for registration was granted for 6,855 flats against 25% deposits, but only 4,134 registrations — about 60% of the eligible stock — have been completed so far. Authority officials said registration camps were being held regularly and meetings conducted with developers, but builders had cited poor response from flat buyers as a key hurdle.
