Curation Team
GHAZIABAD: In a relief to nearly 2,000 buyers, UP has approved a revised draft for Sun City township, a project stalled for two decades over delays in land acquisition, violation of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and Rs 172 crore dues.
The residential project, proposed in 2005 under UP’s hi-tech township policy for ensuring homes in the bustling city, was supposed to come up on 4,312 acres. Repeated protests by farmers for more compensation stalled the land acquisition and over the next 18 years, the developer could acquire only 828 acres.
In 2023, the GDA board cancelled a draft proposal for developing the township on 828 acres, citing the failure of the developer to pay nearly Rs 172 crore in land use conversion charges, also flagged by a CAG audit. This was the third time when the Authority had rejected the developer’s proposal.
According to the initial plan, land for the township was to be acquired from 22 villages where land use was agricultural. The CAG report flagged that when the hi-tech township policy was rolled out, GDA waived off the land conversion charge, leading to huge losses to the exchequer.
Last year, a high-powered committee, set up under the UP chief secretary, gave a conditional go-ahead to the developer to develop the township on 2,420 acres—828 acres that it had acquired, and the rest assimilated from 22 gram sabhas—and asked the GDA to approve a fresh detailed project report (DPR) tabled by the developer.
Earlier this week, the high-powered committee cleared the revised DPR of the township and asked GDA board to clear it too.
“The revised DPR submitted by the developer to the high-powered committee states the township will now come up on 2,420 acres, as proposed earlier. The fact that the developer could not acquire land from farmers in the area was taken into consideration by the committee, which okayed the proposal in the larger interest of about 2,000 buyers who have been waiting for their homes since 2009. GDA board is likely to clear the revised DPR in its next meeting,” a GDA official said.
The developer or its representatives could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
