Noida waives ₹225 crore time extension fee for 16 housing projects

The Noida authority has waived off time-extension charges to the tune of ₹225 crore on as many as 16 housing projects under its zero-period policy.

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The Noida authority officials said the move that extends the deadline for builders in developing their housing projects without a fee being levied on them will help the latter to complete more than 20,000 units.

“We have given a total waiver of ₹225 crore in time-extension fee to 16 housing projects. The move will help in the delivery of 22,064 units in all these 16 projects,” said Ritu Maheshwari chief executive officer of the Noida authority. Work on these housing projects was disrupted due to court disputes over land, the authority said.

On December 3, 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government had approved a ‘zero-period’ scheme that enabled development authorities to give waivers on interest, penalties, and time-extension fees to builders in cases wherein land disputes or court orders had delayed housing projects. These benefits are meant for projects scheduled to be finished by June, 2021. The authority charges 1% of the land cost as time-extension fee if any developer wants to get an additional one year to finish the project.

While the authority gave time extension to 16 housing projects without imposing a fee, it rejected the proposals of 23 housing projects on various grounds. It also said that none of the 39 projects were eligible for interest waivers.

These housing projects whose time-extension charges have been waived off include those being developed by Logix Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in Sector 137, Logix City Developers Pvt Ltd in Sector 143, Logix Infratech Pvt Ltd in Sector 143, Ajnara India Ltd in Sector 74, Greater Value Projects India Ltd in Sector 107, IV County Pvt Ltd in Sector 121, Kindle Infraheights Pvt Ltd in Sector 143, RG Residency Pvt Ltd in Sector 120, Laureate Buildwell Pvt Ltd in Sector 108, Nexgen Infracon Pvt Ltd in Sector 78, PAN Realtors Pvt Ltd in Sector 70, AVP Buildteck Pvt Ltd in Sector 77, Supertech Limited in Sector 74, Sikka Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in Sector 143B, E-Homes Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in Sector 75 and IVR Prime (Avadi) Developers Pvt Ltd in Sector 118.

“After the time-extension and in wake of the Covid -19 pandemic, the 16 developers can deliver their housing projects by December-end in 2021,” said a statement by the Noida authority.

The developers, however, are not too happy with the waivers on time-extension.

“We were hoping to get the interest waivers for the time when the construction was stopped. We are yet to examine how much the latest move will benefit our projects,” said Shakti Nath, a promoter of the Logix group of companies.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), a developers’ group, said the time-extension fee waiver will not make much difference to the realty sector.

“The authority should have given waivers to all 39 projects who had applied for the waivers because their work got affected by land disputes. We also demand that the authority should give a waiver on interest imposed on the land dues,” said Prashant Tiwari, president, CREDAI’s Western UP wing.