Hours after the Supreme Court order, several worried investors at Shah Beri village rushed to the offices of developers demanding their money back or a house at an alternative site.
Builders tried hard to placate those who had invested their hard-earned money in their schemes with assurances that all was not lost.
Sanjeev Sinha, 39, a printing professional who booked a three-bedroom flat with Supertech Ecovillage in 2010, is unconvinced. “I took a loan of Rs 18 lakh from Axis bank at 9 per cent interest. The company had promised they will us give possession by December 2012. This is my first home and if something wrong happens, I do not think I’ll ever get to live in my own home”.
Similar is his friend Gaurav Gupta’s predicament. He said senior managers of Supertech developers assured him his flat does not come under Shah Beri. “I live in Gurgaon and work in a private firm in Noida. I travel everyday for 65 kilometres to my office and if I shift here, my office will be merely 8 kilometres away. I have invested whatever I had in them,” he said.
Gupta’s additional worry, apart from the possibility of losing the apartment, is also his loan.
Sinha said the bank had approved their loans only because the Supertech project was approved by the government. “Was the government sleeping when the construction started in April?” he asked.
Gupta said the picture was not clear. “Supertech has said they will move the project or refund our money. We are middle-class people and this is my first flat,” he said in a worried tone.
The real-estate companies tried their best to ease nerves of harried investors.
An official of the Panchsheel Greens, one of the developers, said, “Construction in Noida Extension area started almost a year ago and there was absolutely no problem. We have a 20-acre project, with about 28 towers. Almost 35 per cent of the work has been completed. We are investing so much in the construction now because we know we are safe. The towers will be ready to move in by 2013.”
Officials at the site-office of Gulshan Homz also claimed they had received no “tensed calls” from buyers. The 11-acre project has 1500 flats.
Amrapali, the biggest of the seven realty firms who have to return land following the Court order, said it had already shifted 3,000 buyers to other projects without any price escalation.
While Amrapali said it will return 40 acres of land it had got from the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority for its housing projects, Supertech, the second biggest of the seven firms, said the verdict was “victory of people who want to develop slums and unauthorised colonies”.
Manoj Gaur, president of the confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI, Western Uttar Pradesh Chapter) said “The Supreme Court’s decision has affected the projects of 6-7 builders, including Amrapali and Supertech. About 6,000 buyers have been affected but developers have taken steps to compensate buyers.”
The association said that it would approach the Greater Noida Authority for some workable solution and noted that seeking refund for investment made on land purchases would be “last resort”.
