Where is the Sports Infra in 'Sports City'

Sports City Scam Infra LIVE July 15, 2022 20 www.infralive.com Tenders During 2004 to 2010, the Noida Authority had been deliberating upon development of international level sporting infrastructure in Noida for organising marquee events like Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, etc. To achieve this, the first scheme of Sports City was launched in 2008, but it did not attract any bidder despite repeated extensions. Again in March 2011, the Noida Authority invited bids for the devel- opment of Sports City in three Sec- tors – 78, 79 and 150 in Noida. The scheme was opened for just 21 days -March 3, 2011 toMarch 24, 2011. In this issue, the scrutiny is on the case of Sports City plot at sector 150 (SC-01/150) which as per ten- der document (called as “bro- chure”) had the land area of 8 lakh sqm (+ 20 per cent). At the reserve price of Rs 11,500 per sqm, the estimated cost worked out to be Rs 920 crore. Important terms of the brochure have been extracted and published as scan-C1 to C5 at pg 28 to pg 31. EligibilityCriteria As per the terms and conditions provided in the brochure, the bid- der was required to qualify eligibil- ity criteria of total minimum turn- over of Rs 200 crore from real estate activities in the last three accounting years. The bidder was required to have completed two real estate development projects of 10 lakh sqft during the last five years. A certificate from the compe- tent statutory authority was required for the completed pro- jects. However, if a bidder did not meet the above stated eligibility criteria on its own, it was allowed to form consortium on the following terms: ¦ Members of the consortium will have to specify one lead member who alone shall be authorised to correspond with NoidaAuthority. ¦ Lead member should be the single largest shareholder hav- ing at least 30 per cent share in t h e c o n s o r t i u m . T h e shareholding of the lead mem- ber in the consortium shall remain atleast 30 per cent till temporary occupancy/ com- pletion certificate of atleast one phase of the project is obtained. ¦ The members shall submit a registered/ notarised Memo- randum of Agreement (MoA) conveying their intent to jointly apply for the scheme and in case the plot is allotted to them, MoA shall clearly define the role and responsibility of each member in the consortium, particularly with regard to arranging debt and equity for the project and its implementa- tion. ¦ MoA should be submitted in original, duly registered/ nota- rised with the appropriate authority. ¦ The members shall also, in case the plot is allotted to them, form a Special Purpose Com- pany (SPC) that will subse- quently carry out all its respon- sibilities as the allottee. The MoA must specify the equity shareholding of each member of the consortium in the pro- posed SPC. ¦ In case of consortium, the lead member and/or relevant mem- ber and/or SPCs put together will have to construct on their own a minimum of 30 per cent of the total permissible FAR on allotted area. ¦ The allottee/ lessee could develop/ implement the pro- ject through its subsidiary com- panies in which the lessee/ allottee must have a minimum o f 9 0 p e r c e n t e q u i t y shareholding. The lessee/ allottee who develops the pro- ject through its subsidiary com- pany shall be entitled for sub- leasing the portion of allotted/ leased land in favour of the subsidiary company and such transfer shall be without any transfer charges. However, on any subsequent transfer/ sub- lease, transfer charges at the prevailing rate shall be payable. I n M a y 2 0 1 1 , w h e n Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, t h e No i d a Au t h o r i t y awarded 224 acres prime land to ineligible, little known Logix group for the development of Sports City for hosting interna- tional events, at half the market- rates. Out of 224 acres land, amini- mum of 157 acres (70 per cent of land) was to be used for sports infrastructure including a 65 acre 9-holeGolf Course byMay 2016. But, even after passage of 11 years of allotment, and six years after the deadline, no major sports infrastructure has been estab- lished. Instead, one can see sprawl- ing high rise residential buildings, villas each worth Rs 9.50 crore and commercial complexes coming up at the site. This has happened when the Akhilesh Yadav led government was at the helm in the state (March 15, 2012 toMarch 18, 2017). During this period, the Logix group reck- lessly divided the plot into 30 sub- plots and handed them over to different newly formed companies which on the face of it were shown to be its subsidiaries. But investiga- tions done by InfraLive found that the control of most of these compa- nies was passed-on/shifted outside of Logix group, to third parties. This is an unusual scam in which an ineligible builder grabbed cheaper land, acquired from farm- ers for industrial development invoking urgency clause, which enabled the collector to dispense with the rights of landowners in respect of hearing on objections to proposed land acquisition for cre- ating sports infrastructure but changed its usage and ownerships in circuitous manner causing loss to the state exchequer. This scam has been facilitated by Noida Authority which kept toeing builder's line while granting approvals after approvals. UP RERA also did not play their role of protecting buyers' interest and did not inform themof violations in the projects by Logix group and their outstanding liabilities of Rs 5,840 crore towardsNoidaAuthority.