Developmental work in Patwari suffers setback

NOIDA EXTENSION: While buyers, developers and the Greater Noida Authority furiously debate the fate of Noida Extension, the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday postponed the hearing on the status of land acquired by the Authority in Roja Yaqubpur and Bisrakh Jalalpur villages.

Hearing on another bunch of 120 petitions filed by villagers from Iteda, Haibatpur , Bisrakh, Ghangola and a couple of other villages in the vicinity has also been postponed. The date of the hearing has been set for July 26.
And with more cases piling up and farmer frenzy against the Authority and builders rising to unprecedented levels, uncertainty looms over Noida Extension — once a booming real-estate township.

The bone of contention is the 2,000 acres of land the Authority acquired since 2007 after invoking the urgency clause on varied pretexts. But, going by the trend of court judgments on land petitions — from Sahberi to Patwari — thousands of private housing units proposed or already underconstruction across Noida Extension are in doldroms.

Even as the Authority and 17 developers with multi-crore upcoming projects in the area dodge liabilities, around 26,000 buyers directly affected by the court order and thousands of investors who have already booked flats are now on tenterhooks. “I have no option, but to wait and watch till the Authority or developers come up with a viable solution for buyers,” said Jitendra Sindhi, a buyer who has booked a flat in Patel Neo Town that is affected by the Patwadi order. Another buyer, Kanchan Sharma, said, “Now, nothing is in the buyers’ hands. All we can do is hope that the matter is sorted out soon. With our entire savings at stake, the court and the Authority must restore order. There is need for the court to address the fears of the buyers as well.”

Another buyer Pratibha says, “It is not every day that we can buy a house and if the entire Noida Extension area gets denotified , where will we go. Now, we have no choice but to wait to find out what’s in store for us?”Also , the Patwari order has further complicated matters since developers went ahead with major construction work, considering that over 90 percent farmers in Patwari had already claimed compensation . Major housing projects like Supertech’s Eco village I, Amrapali’s La Residentia , Ultra Homes, Arden’s Arihant and several more are already underway. Structures of almost five to six floors are ready. The Authority too has already spent Rs. 200 crore on development work in Patwari alone.

Major chunks of development projects like the 130-metre wide Noida-Greater Noida link road, a 60-metre wide link road between Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, the proposed Metro line from Sector 72 in Noida to the Bodaki railway Station, a wide network of sewer lines and several arterial roads fall in the affected area. Besides, the seven developers, land has been allotted for institutional use to two IT companies and two colleges and a hHospital.“The order has actually slammed brakes on the development of Greater Noida.

The Authority, the developers and buyers have all invested huge amounts of money in the area and all of it is turning out to be a criminal waste of resources,” said CEO of GNIDA Rama Raman.