State-run NBCC hopes to generate a surplus of Rs 5,000 crore from sale of the additional units to be constructed at five Amrapali projects after the extra floor area ratio (FAR) approved by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA).
Of the surplus proceeds, roughly Rs 1550 crore will be used for repayment of existing Amrapali-specific loans from a consortium of banks and SBI Caps, while the balance will go into development of these five and other projects under ASPIRE, a company set up for stuck Amrapali projects, NBCC chairman and managing director KP Mahadevaswamy said.
Thanks to the higher FAR, as many as 13,000 more residential units will be built in the five projects of Amrapali – Centurian Park, Golf Homes, Leisure Park, Leisure Valley, and Dream Valley.
These units will be in addition to over 38,000 unfinished units that NBCC has been asked to complete by the Supreme Court in 2019 in the stalled 24 Amrapali Group projects.
NBCC aims to start work on the additional units by June, and has estimated the cost of construction to be around Rs 10,000 crore, including dues to GNIDA. It aims to generate Rs 15,000 crore from the sales of these units.
“We are planning to launch premium apartments – a combination of 3/4 bedroom houses as there’s a demand for bigger apartments in Greater Noida,” said Mahadevaswamy.
With 75.24 acres of vacant plot area earmarked for development, NBCC chairman said that the extra FAR will not result in any inconvenience to existing homebuyers in these 5 projects. “The population density will not increase. We are not changing green space, ground coverage area, and facilities like schools and hospitals. These new buildings will be constructed as per authorities’ provisions. In fact, NBCC is going to leave more green space (even after constructing more units) than the original plan of Amrapali,” he said
Under ASPIRE, NBCC has already completed 16,000 flats across various projects. It hopes to hand over the remaining 22,000 flats by March next year. Around 1600 flats are facing payment-related and dual allotment issues.
In March 2023, the SC asked NBCC to submit a proposal on the unused FAR in these projects. Even though the GNIDA was initially reluctant to approve higher FAR, which is a ratio between a building’s total constructed floor area and the land area, NBCC was able to convince the authorities. NBCC still has around Rs 3,000 crore of dues towards GNIDA.
Based on its experience with Amrapali projects, NBCC is now willing to take over unfinished projects from other distressed realty companies such as Unitech.