Curation Team
NOIDA: Over the years, they have seen many false dawns. A section of India’s most troubled group of homebuyers – some of them waiting for the houses they booked in Jaypee Wish Town in Noida for nearly 15 years now – took to the streets yet again on Thursday, saying they feared another.
This was the first such protest against Suraksha, the resolution applicant that took over Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) last May after a long-winded legal process. Homebuyers shouted slogans and breached barricades near Suraksha’s office in Sector 128, forcing police to intervene.
They demanded a meeting with the senior management and sought timelines. Around 17,000 buyers are waiting for their flats in the residential project, which was launched in 2010-11 with deliveries promised in 2014-15. On March 7, 2023, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved Suraksha’s bid to acquire the debt-ridden JIL. On May 24 last year, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld the NCLT order with a modification that the Mumbai-based asset reconstruction company would pay an enhanced farmers’ compensation amount of Rs 1,335 crore to Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority.
When the NCLT order was passed, construction was on at 62 towers in four Wish Town projects — Kosmos, Klassic, Kensington Boulevard and Kensington Park Apartments and Heights. Work was stalled or yet to begin in 15 towers of the four projects and 82 towers across six condominiums — Garden Isles, Krescent Homes, Kasa Isles, Orchards, Kube and Pebble Court— affecting 9,321 homebuyers. Work on some of these towers had been abandoned for nearly eight years.
“The NCLAT order of May 2024 marked the ‘approval date’. So, as per the resolution plan, Suraksha Group was required to resume construction within 90 days. But eight months since the ‘approval date’, there’s hardly any progress,” said Ashish Mohan Gupta, president of JIL Real Estate Allottees Welfare Society (JREAWS) that organised the protest.
Later, some buyers met Suraksha CEO Abhijit Gohil. “We conveyed our concerns. Now, we will meet again on April 19 to review the progress of work at each project and tower. We also decided to hold monthly meetings moving forward,” Gupta said.
Prem Chauhan, a retired BSF DIG and a Wish Town buyer, said, “I retired in 2011 and invested Rs 45 lakh for my flat. So far, I have paid Rs 84 lakh. I was supposed to get possession in 2016. But even today, I am paying Rs 25,000 in rent and Rs 38,000 in EMI every month. I don’t even know if I will ever get my flat. First, Jaypee and now Suraksha are playing the same game.”
The protesters claimed that key contractual obligations of the resolution plan have been violated, including the failure to secure a Rs 3,000-crore funding facility within 90 days of the takeover. The protesters said with two of the three officials appointed to oversee the resolution plan’s implementation having resigned, they didn’t know who to coordinate with. Aalok Dave, appointed as executive director, managing director, and CEO on June 4, 2024, resigned last Nov. Suresh Bansal, appointed additional executive director on June 21 last year, resigned on Aug 17. The current management, they alleged, does not engage with elected project-wise homebuyer representatives.
Besides, they alleged, a mobile app that was to keep buyers posted on construction, dues and alerts has not been developed yet. Buyers also claimed that projects like Garden Isles, Orchards, Wishpoint, Sunnyvale Homes and Tanishq Square remain on UP-Rera’s abeyance list despite the legal mandate for compliance within 12 months of NCLT approval.
With construction stalled, Suraksha has not applied for any new occupancy certificates and is handing over units for which OCs were granted earlier. The company, buyers alleged, had refused to share structural audit reports of long-abandoned towers.
The buyers’ association has filed an application in NCLT, seeking the formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the implementation of the resolution plan. The next hearing is scheduled for April 15.
In Aug last year, Suraksha had told TOI that it had awarded tenders for 41 of the 97 towers across nine delayed projects to various contractors. For the remaining 56 towers, Suraksha was expected to finalise contractors within a couple of months. After homebuyers went to NCLT last Dec, Suraksha claimed it would resume construction work once the restrictions due to the graded response action plan (Grap) in Delhi-NCR were revoked.
Suraksha responds
Suraksha Group CEO Gohil told TOI on Thursday, “We have clarified all their concerns regarding the construction timeline. At present, there are around 3,500 workers, and this number will only go up. All the contracts have now been awarded, and contractors have started mobilising workforce and machinery. All the workers cannot be mobilised at once. We are very confident of fulfilling the timelines. On average, we delivered three to four flats per day last month. We are also in the process of obtaining OCs for complete towers.”
