Two successive regimes in Uttar Pradesh – the Mayawati & Akhilesh Yadav – actively authored and facilitated the prime land grabbing of 224 acres of real estate by ineligible web of companies put together by the Logix group. Plot No. SC-01, Sector 150, Noida was tendered as a Sports City development project for hosting international level marquee events like Commonwealth Games, Asian Games. Out of 224 acres land, a minimum of 70 per cent of land (157 acres) was to be used for sports infrastructure including a 65 acre 9-hole Golf Course. Timelines of completion schedules were set up. But all this was a sham.
No sports infra of any international repute, as proclaimed, ever came into existence. What came up in its place were high rise residential complexes, luxury villas and commercial complexes. Logix group swindled land usage and ownerships rampantly through several circuitous methods and divided the real estate meant for Sports into 30 sub-plots and handed them over to third parties and its dummy subsidiaries. The Logix group, buffeted by both the BSP & SP governments, has an overall outstanding liability of Rs 5,840 crore towards Noida Authority.
An in-depth investigation of publicly available official records done by InfraLive lays bare all these details. The eligibility criteria of turnover and record in real estate activities was overlooked, a violation that was reported by the C&AG. The meagre net-worth and ineligibility of Logix was ignored. The Logix group and its consortium cohort were small time IT development companies, which did not clock the required Rs 200 crore turnover. What followed was land usurpation and creating third party liabilities through illegal sub-leasing to ATS group, Ace group, Bhutani group, Max group etc. Noida Authority and UP RERA were equally complicit. It is difficult to believe that they slept at the wheel when the evidence was so compelling, active collusion is more likely the reason.
This is the fine use they made of the significant incentives of Rs 923 crores that were given by the Noida Authority in terms of reduced pricing of plots and allowance of extra Floor Area Ratio and Ground Coverage. At risk are homebuyers of the residential projects that are being constructed since they are likely to face major issues in getting their flats registered.
