NOIDA: It’s a tough one to untangle but recommendations of the UP assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) may pave the way for resumption of construction work at the Sports City in Sector 150.
PAC has suggested that if developers meet the original 70-30 formula of the policy — 70% of the project area for sports facilities and 30% for housing or commercial complexes — they can be allowed to restart work.
The Noida Authority stopped work at all four Sports Cities — one across sectors 78, 79 and 101 allotted to Three C, another in Sector 152 to ATS Homes and one each in Sector 150 to Logix Infra and Lotus Greens — after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled a performance audit on land acquisition and allotment in Noida between financial years 2005-06 and 2017-18.
The report, tabled in the state assembly in 2021, highlighted that Sports City developers had prioritised housing projects while putting sporting facilities on the backburner.
In Nov last year, PAC directed Noida to approve a revised layout submitted by Lotus Greens if the developer cleared its Rs 1,200 crore dues and met the original 70-30 land use formula. PAC also asked Noida to obtain an affidavit from Lotus on a timeframe for depositing its dues of Rs 1,200 crore.
Noida Authority CEO Lokesh M said the board is likely to discuss the revised plan submitted by the developer in its March meeting. “We are currently evaluating the revised map submitted by Lotus and see if it meets all parameters. The Authority may revoke the decisions taken in the 201st board meeting in Jan 2021 to ban all construction work in the Sports Cities,” he said.
After the CAG report, Noida decided not to approve any building plan till the developers built sports infrastructure and complied with the 70-30 land use norms of the scheme.
The Sector 150 project, which spans 132.9 hectares, was allocated in 2017 to Lotus Greens and the developer formed a consortium, splitting the land into 24 parts.
At present, some projects of consortium partners — Tata, Samriddhi, Eldeco, Homekraft and Godrej, among others — have been constructed.
The rest of the land is still vacant because other consortium partners are yet to launch their projects.
Layouts of 13 of these 24 projects had earlier been cleared. Together, these have around 10,000 flats.
The sports facilities to be developed include a golf course, a cricket academy, swimming centre, multipurpose playground and a tennis academy.
The four developers of Sports City created third-party rights for 74 plots and allotted them to other companies. Of these 74, the layouts of 45 projects were approved.
Between them, these have 30,000 housing units, of which 50% have been delivered to buyers across the four Sports Cities. But registries have not happened because the projects are incomplete and don’t meet licence conditions.
A decision to allow registries for these 15,000 flats may also be at the March board meeting. “The Noida Authority board has the power to decide on this matter as a decision in this regard was also taken in the 201st board meeting,” the CEO told TOI.
