PCNTDA to generate houses on its own
(Indian Express, July 17, 2011)
The cancellation of the DB Realty project under the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) means a further wait for the families who, by March next year, would have benefited from the 53-hectare project. The Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) PPP model that failed will involve a new tendering process, the resolution for which was initiated in PCNTDA in May. The township, proposed in February 2009, was expected to be completed by March 2012 and was supposed to generate 5,040 homes under BSUP and 2,750 homes for the Middle Income Group (MIG) and High Income Group (HIG).
Suhas Divse, chief executive officer, PCNTDA, said, “The PCNTDA project was supposed to be completed by March 2012. However, citing the delay, the central government cancelled the project and subsequently we scrapped it. An amount of Rs 50 crore which was the deposit along with the bank guarantee amount has been refunded to them. The entire process has cost us loss of low cost houses which, we would have made available to the residents at Rs 1-1.5 lakh, besides time. Now, we will have to initiate the tendering process once again and generate 8,000-10,000 houses on our own. Further, it will take another three years for the township to be ready.”
On Friday, DB Realty Ltd had said that its proposed Rs 400-crore township project in Pune had been cancelled by the PCNTDA, without giving a reason as to why the local body canceled the project. “PCNTDA has refunded the upfront deposit money of Rs 50 crore to the company which will take legal recourse in the matter, terming the cancellation of letter of intent after 22 months as arbitrary and illegal,” DB Realty had told the stock exchanges on Friday.
Dilip Band, Pune divisional commissioner and president, PCNTDA had however said, “The project was cancelled because PCNTDA could not take the allotted money from the central government. The project did not go ahead because of litigation and complaints filed by the local MP and some politicians regarding the tendering process and the manner in which the allotment was done. As there were complaints, no work order was issued to DB Realty’s JV. The project could not be completed in the stipulated time of two years and so the centre cancelled the project.”
The central government had given grants of Rs 150 crore under JNNURM for the project that was to come up in Sector 12 under the category of BSUP.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pcntda-to-generate-houses-on-its-own/818630/0
