Suraksha Group, whose resolution plan for Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) was approved by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) last week, is likely to take over the debt-ridden company after a meeting next week.
The move will take the Mumbai-based Suraksha Group a step closer to resuming construction on nine stalled projects of Wish Town in Noida and other locations and renew hopes for 20,000 buyers who invested in flats 15-20 years ago.
As of now, JIL’s daily affairs are managed by an implementation and monitoring committee (IMC). Set up by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the committee is made up of officials from Suraksha, JIL, homebuyers and an IRP.
“Suraksha Group has informed us about its plan to formally take over JIL. A meeting of the monitoring company is scheduled for Tuesday. An announcement about the takeover will follow soon. This will pave the way for construction to start on stalled projects,” said Arun Vir Singh, the CEO of Yamuna Expressway Authority (YEIDA), which has administrative control over the land on which some of these projects are coming up.
“Suraksha officials will hold another meeting with us on Friday to discuss how and when they plan to make payments for farmers compensation. We will start distributing the amount among villagers once we receive money from the company,” he added.
While approving its resolution plan on May 24, NCLAT had asked Suraksha to pay Rs 1,335 crore to YEIDA over the next four years as farmers’ compensation.
According to the resolution plan Suraksha submitted in the bankruptcy court in April, it offered to pay Rs 1,216 crore as enhanced compensation for farmers. The company proposed to pay 10% of the amount in 90 days, 15% by the end of the first year and 25% annually for the next three years. NCLAT, however, asked Suraksha to pay an additional Rs 118.3 crore, aligning it with payments made to other secured creditors.
YEIDA, which had demanded Rs 1,689 crore from Suraksha for the farmers’ compensation, is now planning to cover the deficit from its own coffers.
Singh said a decision on this would be taken at the next board meeting.
As of now, work is underway in four Jaypee projects involving 62 towers and 6,000-odd homebuyers. They are Kosmos, Klassic, Kensington Boulevard and Kensington Park Apartments. However, there are 15 towers in Kosmos and Kensington Boulevard where work is halted.
Additionally, there are 82 towers across seven projects — Garden Isles, Krescent Homes, Kasa Isles, Orchard, Kube, Pebble Court and Wishpoint — that haven’t seen any construction for the past decade or so. These have 9,727 homebuyers in total.
The monitoring committee has already finalised contractors for these projects. Suraksha can go ahead with the construction once it takes over JIL.
