Haryana’s town planning department DTCP has cancelled the licences of and taken over 15 stalled real estate projects across the state. The declaration comes a few days after the state-run NBCC was roped in to revive Amrapali’s unfinished projects in Noida.
The licences of the projects are cancelled on the orders of Jitender Sihag, DTCP’s chief town planner.
“The developers have been restrained from the sale, purchase or transaction in these projects,” Bhuvesh Kumar, senior town planner, Gurugram, told TOI. “The licences have been cancelled and projects taken over by the director, DTCP.”
The developers of the cancelled projects are given a window of 60 days to appeal. The licences can be revived if the developers clear dues and remove other discrepancies pointed by the DTCP.
Kumar reportedly also declared that the buyers will not be affected financially by the move. They have to produce their agreement and the government will serve their liability at the same rate at which they had purchased it from the builder. Depending on the state of their project, buyers will either get their property or their money back.
As of now, the 15 projects that are undertaken by DTCP are mostly small and medium-sized housing and commercial projects, amounting to some 1000 buyers collectively. Nine of these projects are in Gurgaon while three are in Karnal, two in Faridabad and one in Hisar.
One of the concerned Gurgaon projects is the 10.25 acre-commercial complex in Sector 110. Although the licence is valid up to August 22, 2019, the developer could neither rectify deficiencies pointed out by the DTCP nor deposit outstanding EDC dues.
The recent developments seem to indicate towards an increase of government intervention to rescue troubled real estate projects. It is clear that such intervention could no longer be unusual, at least not in NCR, where housing projects are running years behind schedule.