Ghaziabad authority seeks Rs1,000 crore loan to pay land compensation

The compensation amount is to be paid within a year after farmers challenged the acquisition and moved the Supreme Court. In November last year, the apex court directed the authority will be under no obligation to return nearly 281 acre of land which was acquired under a 2004 notification for the housing scheme

The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) has applied for a loan of over Rs 1,000 crore from the Housing & Urban Development Corporation in order to pay the land compensation for their ambitious Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme, officials said on Saturday.

The Madhuban Bapudham scheme is seen as a potential source of income for the authority. It is spread over an area of more than 1,250 acre of land belonging to several villages and located between NH-24 and erstwhile NH-58. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The compensation amount is to be paid within a year after farmers challenged the acquisition and moved the Supreme Court. In November last year, the apex court directed the authority will be under no obligation to return nearly 281 acre of land which was acquired under a 2004 notification for the housing scheme. The farmers holding the 281 acre land had challenged the acquisition process.

“Since the authority has decided that it will take up the entire 281 acre of land for development purpose, we have to pay up nearly Rs 1,200 crore under the compensation plan. For this we have applied for Rs 1,100 crore loan and rest Rs 100-150 crore on account of charges will be borne by the authority out of own funds,” said Kanchan Verma, vice-chairperson, GDA.

“The district collector office has also raised a bill of Rs 1,200 crore and we hope that HUDCO will clear the loan soon. The amount will later be deposited with district collector officer and it will be paid to farmers around September. Since no board meeting has taken place so far, the board will be apprised about the decision in next meeting,” Verma added.

The Madhuban Bapudham scheme is seen as a potential source of income for the authority. It is spread over an area of more than 1,250 acre of land belonging to several villages and located between NH-24 and erstwhile NH-58. The scheme is intended for development of nearly 20,000 housing units.

The scheme is developed over land belonging to the farmers of Sadarpur, Mainapur, Naglapath, Yaqoobpur and Morta villages. The farmers had denied physical possession of their land and development work for the scheme that got hampered earlier.

Further, for the financial year 2017-18, the authority has also cleared a budget of nearly Rs 2,500 crore by way of circulation among the board members as the meeting was postponed recently. The officials said the budget will be placed in the next meeting for a formal approval.