SC says shouldn't disturb common areas at Amrapali approved earlier

SC says shouldn’t disturb common areas at Amrapali approved earlier

NEW DELHI: Giving hope that Amrapali homebuyers would not have to sacrifice and to give up
the facilities and common areas which were promised to them at the time of booking of flats,
the Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that common areas which were approved earlier
should not be disturbed and asked National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to give
a proposal on unused floor area ratio (FAR) .
A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi, which is exploring various options to raise
funds to complete the project, said that whatever facilities and common areas which were
approved should not be disturbed.
Amrapali homebuyers have been strongly opposing the proposal of selling of unused FAR and
dividing the plot to sell its unused portion to raise the money for construction. The court also
earlier questioned the homebuyers for seeking all their problems to be resolved by the court but
not ready to sacrifice anything and not extending a helping hand to those who did not get
possession of their flats.

The court proceedings also witnessed a sharp exchange of words between NBCC and the
Noida authority as differences between them cropped up on unused and purchasable FAR.
Taking a potshot at Noida authority, the PSU, which has been entrusted the task by the apex
court to undertake the construction of Amrapali project, said the Authority was “den of
corruption” which was sleeping like a ‘Kumbhkaran’ when Amrapali promoters were bungling but
now objecting to its all proposal to revive the projects.
Attorney general R Venkataramani, who is also court-appointed receiver to manage the affairs
of Amrapali group and has been exploring various options in the last three years to raise the
money to complete the housing projects, had earlier floated the proposal for selling unused
FAR. He told the bench there is no magical solution available to the problem of fund crunch and
it was the best and the easiest way to generate money and it can fetch around Rs 1,000 crore.
But homebuyers and the Authority insisted that money could be raised from selling off the
assets of Amrapali’s erstwhile promoters and directors who siphoned off funds as per the report
of forensic auditor and the option of selling of FAR should not be exercised. The homebuyers
are opposed as selling of FAR or hiving off the plot would lead to reduction in common area
meant for park and other activities.

The apex court, after taking over Amrapali group, gave the task to NBCC to construct a total of
16 projects consisting of 46,575 Units of which nine projects are situated in Noida and the
remaining seven projects are in Greater Noida. As per NBCC, Rs.8,016.68 crore is required for
completion of all the projects.