SC okays SBICAP's proposal to fund six stalled project of Amrapali Group

In a relief to thousands of home buyers of now defunct Amrapali Group, the Supreme Court on Tuesday resolved the issue of interest payable to SBICAP Ventures and cleared the hurdle for funding of six stalled projects covering around 7000 residential units.

The SBICAP, which manages the government sponsored stress fund for the real estate sector had earlier told the top court that it has decided to provide Rs 625 Crore for constriction of six identified stalled projects of Amrapali Group.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit directed that the legal framework be submitted before the court within a period of four weeks under which SBICAP will be paid 12 per cent internal rate of return.

The bench said that construction of the projects will be done by state run National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) and the monitoring will be done by a court appointed committee.

The six Amrapali projects for which construction will be undertaken include Silicon Valley-1 and 2, Crystal Homes, Centurian Park Low Rise, Centurian Park O2 Valley and Centurian Park Tropical Garden, which will have around 6970 residential units.

The top court asked court receiver senior advocate R Venkataramani, to hold discussion with Reserve Bank of India to explore the possibility of making consortium of banks for funding of other stalled projects of Amrapali.

The top court had earlier directed SBICAP Ventures Ltd, which manages government sponsored Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) fund, to take a call on financing the completion of stalled projects of the now defunct Amrapali Group.

The top court had on December 18, last year directed the court receiver who has been appointed custodian of properties of Amrapali Group, to make an application to SBICAP Ventures and furnish the requisite information with regard to the projects.

On December 16, last year the top court had asked the Centre to inform it as to how much time it will take to decide on an application for financing the stalled projects of now defunct Amrapali Group from the newly launched Rs 25,000 crore stress fund for the real estate sector.

The Centre has submitted that the State Bank of India has been appointed as a fund manager and it will disburse the amount based on certain norms after an application is made by a real estate entity.

The apex court in its July 23, last year verdict had cracked its whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA, and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.

It had directed the state-run NBCC to complete the stalled projects of the Amrapali Group, whose directors Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar are behind bars on the top court's order.

It had directed the Centre and states to ensure that real estate projects are completed in a time-bound manner as contemplated in RERA and home buyers are not defrauded, and ordered the Noida and Greater Noida authorities to give completion certificate to the home buyers of Amrapali group who are already residing in various projects.