Curation Team
NOIDA: Fed up with National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), the homebuyers of Amrapali projects staged a protest outside the court receiver’s office in Sector 62 on Friday. The buyers, who have moved Supreme Court, are demanding “a fair probe into the matter” during the next hearing.
The protesters alleged their flats were cancelled and later awarded to other players at a very low cost to make money. “The buyers were not given a chance to submit their representation,” they alleged. Attempts to contact Gaur builder and NBCC for their comments failed.
Facing protests from Amrapali homebuyers, NBCC has defended its decision to sell new flats in bulk to private developers, saying it was a “last resort” to raise funds for completing stalled housing projects. The state-run construction company’s move has sparked outrage among homebuyers, who alleged while their long-awaited flats were being cancelled in the name of delayed payments, new flats with additional FAR were being handed over to private developers at “discounted” rates.
Noida Extension Flat Owner Welfare Association (Nefowa), the body protesting for the Amrapali homebuyers, said their units were cancelled for no reason and without proper communication. The units are sold through channel partners. When NBCC took charge of Amrapali projects, it inherited the responsibility of completing them.
However, with an objective to complete all units, NBCC purchased an additional floor area ratio (FAR), from 2.75 to 3.5 to sell them to developers.
Nefowa vice president Dipankar Kumar said, “On the one hand, NBCC is claiming a fund crisis — saying buyers are not paying the amount against their flats — while on the other, NBCC sought FAR and further gave it to Gaursons and other players.”
Kumar said, “NBCC cancelled thousands of units and later awarded them at Rs 7,200 per sqft to Gaursons in the Centurian Park project. Now Gaursons is calling this its own project in advertisements. However, NBCC has to develop it. Gaursons is just a channel partner.”
Kumar said, “Through sources, we came to know that Gaursons is selling these units at 11,000 to 12,000 per sqft. We are feeling cheated. We will apprise SC about this issue during the next hearing.”
“We smell serious corruption in it and will take it up before SC. Buyers invested hard-earned money to get their dream housesAfter SC’s intervention, we heaved a sigh of relief, but our hopes vanished. There is some foul play,” Kumar said.
