Amrapali, Unitech & Jaypee Infratech homebuyers left out from FM’s Rs 25,000 crore booster

NEW DELHI: More than 75,000 homebuyers of Amrapali, Jaypee Infratech and Unitech in the National Capital Region are unlikely to be eligible for support from the Rs 25,000 crore stress fund due to the various conditions put by the government under the scheme, industry players and homebuyers said.

“These three players might not be eligible, but the real estate sector is beyond these three. Even if we exclude the projects under these three companies, two lakh homebuyers will be benefited,” said Gaurav Gupta, joint secretary of the NCR chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India.

While about 35,000 customers of Amrapali plan to file a petition before the Supreme Court to make them eligible for the funding, according to a few of them ET spoke to, several homebuyers at Jaypee and Unitech said they haven’t taken a call on the next step.

The finance ministry had clarified that this fund would not be invested in projects which are facing litigation in the high courts and the Supreme Court. In the NCR, houses costing more than Rs 1.5 crore will also not be eligible. “Our next hearing is on December 2 where we plan to request the court to either direct the government or pass an order allowing our flats to be eligible for the funding,” said Abhishek Kumar, an Amrapali homebuyer.

The SC had de-registered Amrapali’s projects. As per the directives of the finance ministry, only those projects that are registered with real estate regulatory authorities would be eligible for the funding.

“The focus of this special window will be on the projects that are stalled for lack of construction funding. It shall also look at projects that are NPAs or undergoing NCLT proceedings that can commence construction immediately after funds are made available,” the ministry has said.

Dipanker, another homebuyer at one of the Amrapali projects in Noida, said in the last hearing, they had requested the SC to consider disbursement of the stress fund to them as well. A majority of the 20,000 homebuyers at Jaypee’s projects may not be eligible because of the Rs 1.5 crore price cap. But they feel NBCC, which has been asked to complete the projects, could complete those. “Projects at Jaypee is financially viable because the value of the assets is more than the liability. So, it doesn’t require the stress fund,” said Ajay Kaul, a homebuyer of Jaypee.