The Uttar Pradesh government’s public accounts committee (PAC) has cleared Noida’s Sports City project, which comprises premium group housing projects alongside world class sports facilities, in Noida’s Sector 150. The project has remained stuck since the past four years and with the PAC’s green signal, Noida authority has decided to lift the four-year ban imposed on the sale of plots, approval for mall, issuance of occupancy certificate and registration of flats.
The PAC, consisting of MLAs, on July 24, 2023, started reviewing the issues of realty projects and also sought the current status of projects being developed by at least 24 developers, including Tata, Godrej, ATS, ACE and Samridhi, among others, after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) raised objections and said developers started housing projects without developing the class sports facilities in each of four Sports City projects, causing a loss to the exchequer.
As per the terms and conditions of the project, developers were to raise housing on 30% land and sports facilities on the remaining 70%. The CAG raised objections stating that violation of terms caused a financial loss to the state as the developers got the land at cheaper rates in the name of raising sports facilities and they did not develop any sports facilities, said officials.
The developers maintained that they could not develop sports facilities because they could not get the adequate land due to dispute with farmers.
According to rules, the PAC had to look into the financial irregularity issues in Sector 150 Sports City land and three other Sports City projects after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) raised financial loss issues during the allotment. The three objections that the CAG raised were related to irregularities in the allotment procedure, allotment rate and sale of plots that came to fore during the CAG audit, said officials.
