The much acclaimed Business Parks and Town Planners (BPTP) project on 3.82 lakh square metres in Noida , may not come through as the consortium has not been able to pay for the land. BPTP is learnt to have written to New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) saying that it is unable to pay for the land on the due dates, reports The Times of India.
The consortium had bagged the Noida land deal in March bidding for the land at the rate of over Rs 1.30 lakh per square meter. Out of the total amount payable of Rs 5,000 crore, BPTP had made an initial payment of Rs 1,300 crore as registration money and allotment money. The firm has been unable to make any further payments.
Private Equity Intervention
In September 2008, BPTP had planned to raise $300 million from private equity (PE) funds to fund the project in Noida. The consortium had also initiated negotiations with various PE players. In July last year, BPTP had also sold 4% stake to JPMorgan Chase for Rs 250 crore. All its efforts to raise funds for the Noida project seem to have failed as the consortium is unable to make any further payments.
BPTP had planned to build 45 office buildings, 2 million sq ft of retail space and two hotels with a combined capacity of 550 rooms at its Noida site. It was looking at replicating the likes of such as Canary Wharf of London, More London and Roppongi Hills, Tokyo for the Noida project.
The consortium will now have to pay 10% of the amount paid till now to NOIDA as penalty. While BPTP will be allowed to keep the land, it has made payments for, rest of the land will be forfeited. NOIDA will discuss this case in its board meeting scheduled for Friday.
The state government had recently announced a scheme to deal with such cases during recession periods. The report adds that BPTP has written to NOIDA saying that it would like to avail of such schemes.
