Kamal Nath asks DDA to Specify loss to exchequer

The urban development ministry has written to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), seeking an estimate of the loss caused to the exchequer due to the non-allotment of flats in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village complex in Delhi. Kamal Nath, who replaced Jaipal Reddy as the urban development minister after CWG 2010, is learnt to have taken up the matter with the senior DDA officials.

Nath also raised the CWG village issue with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) recently, according to an official. While 743 flats have been lying vacant in the CWG village complex, another 445 are yet to be handed over to buyers.

Even as a total of Rs 1,500 crore has been paid for the 445 odd flats sold by Emaar MGF, since in the same complex, DDA has a quota of 743 flats, the auction of which is stuck due to the absence of a completion certificate. The market value of these flats has been estimated at around Rs 2,500 crore. Analysts say the loss would also include at least Rs 300 crore per year of interest.

Neither Nath nor DDA vice-chairman G S Patnaik could be reached for their comments.

For the third time in a row, the Urban Art Commission, an autonomous body under the urban development ministry, has refused to clear the CWG village residential project. A senior official of the commission told Business Standard the “builders/developers have carried out construction work at an area beyond what was stipulated,” and that is the reason why the clearance is stuck.

A year after the Games were held in Delhi (October 3 to 14, 2010), there’s no sign of any solution on how or by when the 445 flats sold by Emaar MGF would be handed over to the buyers. The authorities are quiet on the proposed auction of the remaining 743 flats in the same complex, which come under the DDA’s quota.

Well-known personalities who have bought flats at the CWG village include actress Sharmila Tagore, former finance secretary Ashok Jha, cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, dancer Shobhana Narain, and former Indian ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar.