Greater Noida authority launches group housing plot scheme after 5 years

The authority officials said that a realtor, according to the UP government directions, will have to develop at least 25% flats for economically weaker section and low income group on each plot

After a gap of nearly five years, the Greater Noida authority on Sunday decided to launch a plot scheme for group housing projects in the city. The authority will raise around ₹400 crore by selling four plots under the scheme, officials said.

At least 200 housing projects in Greater Noida are way behind their schedules due to multiple reasons, including ‘fund diversion’, officials said. (HT Archive)

Of these four plots, one each is located in sectors Zeta 1 and Eta 2, and two plots are in Sector Sigma 3. The size of the plots will range from 23,500 square metres to 39,321 sqm.

The authority officials said that a realtor, according to the UP government directions, will have to develop at least 25% flats for economically weaker section (EWS) and low income group (LIG) on each plot. It was 2016 when the Greater Noida authority had last launched the group housing plot scheme.

The brochure of the new scheme will be available online from October 18 and the last date to download it from the websites -- greaternoidaauthority.in and https:/etender.sbi -- will be November 8. The last date to submit the applications is November 12 and the e-auction will be conducted on November 22, the officials said, adding that the reserve price has been fixed at ₹32,000 per sqm.

“We will scrutinise first if an interested developer is financially and technically qualified to build the project and deliver the units as per the scheme. We have made it mandatory that each developer on these four plots also build EWS and LIG units,” said Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority.

This is the first time that the authority has made it mandatory for developers to build EWS and LIG units in a group housing project. According to the authority, at least 200 housing projects are way behind their respective schedules due to multiple reasons, including ‘fund diversion’ and poor demands in the city.

Developers said that the market conditions are tough post the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Due to the economic crisis post Covid-19, the real estate sector is also witnessing a bad time currently. We hope that the scheme do well amid this slowdown in the realty sector,” said Prashant Tiwari, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (western UP chapter).