Noida: A five-member committee set up by UP govt to examine Suraksha Group’s work at Jaypee Wish Town held its first meeting with representatives of homebuyers and the Mumbai-based realtor on Wednesday to determine if the layout plan, approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), had been complied with and whether funds collected from homebuyers were spent on construction.The committee was set up on Sept 11 after homebuyers flagged irregularities in the construction of the project, which was handed over to Suraksha in 2023 after Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) went bankrupt.Noida Authority officer on special duty Santosh Kumar, who is heading the panel, said they sat down with buyers at the Wish Town conference room around 3 pm to hear the grievances. “We are assessing the actual progress of construction and whether funds received from homebuyers are being utilised for the purpose for which they were collected. We will also see if adequate manpower has been deployed to complete the work on time,” Kumar said.The committee, also comprising two officials each from the planning and finance departments of Noida and Yamuna authorities, will vet whether the ongoing construction adhered to the approved project report and layout/site plans, and if any additional tower, floor, dwelling unit, built-up area or any other structure is being developed beyond the approved plan. It will submit a report within a month.In its Aug 20 report, a two-member fact-finding committee of former tribunal members Prasanta Kumar Mohanty and Deepti Mukesh, set up by NCLT earlier this year, found the Wish Town project was lagging. It said that of JIL’s 250 residential towers, 91 comprising 12,867 units had been completed before Suraksha took charge. Of the remaining 159 towers, 97 with 10,164 units were stalled and 62 with 6,067 units were nearly complete.Suraksha was required to complete the remaining work on the 62 near-complete towers within 18 months. However, over two years — from June 4, 2024 to June 30, 2026 — it issued 3,444 possession offers and executed 2,614 sub-lease deeds. The committee report said more than 6,000 offers could have been issued.In Sept, Suraksha Group promoter Sudhir Valia said that the company has completed 84 towers comprising 7,913 units out of the 159 towers that were stalled or not complete when it took over JIL’s operations. The company said it has already given possession of 5,000 flats to homebuyers. Of the 22 clubhouses, development was in an advanced stage in 15.JIL Real Estate Allottees Welfare Society (JREAWS) president Ashish Mohan Gupta said, “The committee set up by NCLT has concluded that the grievances and allegations of delay in construction and delivery of flats raised by homebuyers are correct and genuine, and that the Suraksha has failed to complete the projects as promised in the resolution plan, thereby breaching its obligations towards thousands of allottees.” He said the homebuyers demand project-wise and tower-wise time-bound completion directions, particularly for the stalled towers.Anirudh Gupta, another homebuyer, said that Suraksha had to deploy 12,000 labourers but had engaged only 3,500-4,000 at the site, which further delayed construction.The corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against JIL began in Aug 2017 following an application by an IDBI Bank-led consortium. On March 7, 2023, NCLT approved Suraksha Group’s bid to acquire JIL. In May 2024, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld Suraksha’s resolution plan, under which the developer had committed to completing the projects in 40 months.
