NAREDCO seeks extension of compliance norms in UP

The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) for Uttar Pradesh has sought a six months automatic extension for compliance with various orders issued by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) of the state as the construction activities across realty projects have come to a complete standstill with the escalation of the second wave of Covid-19 cases. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs stats, 65,539 cases have been disposed of by the respective state RERA authorities as of 24 April 2021. Out of this, nearly 40% cases (26,510 complaints) were resolved in UP alone. NAREDCO-UP has also requested state RERA an extension of a similar time period for completion of various projects of developers registered with UP-RERA and submission of various returns and documents. RK Arora, President, UP NAREDCO, informed that this will give the developers a breathing space to re-organize the construction activities and find resources to comply with various orders of RERA. Persons in large numbers associated with construction activities have become Covid-19 positive and many have even died. Some of the projects have been sealed by the District Administration prohibiting any kind of movement to and from these projects. The second wave of COVID-19 is considered to be a national natural calamity qualifying for force majeure for all purposes and relief measures are being taken by the government on a war footing basis. The situation has brought the construction activities at all projects to a complete standstill as the weekend curfew/lockdown was clamped on from April 23. Since the COVID-19 cases are still rising rapidly and no indication of the situation improving visible, it is expected that the construction will suffer at least for the next six months. Even after that, it will take time to restore the material supply chain, re-engagement of manpower and machines. The disruption of construction has led to a liquidity crisis amongst developers as the collections have been completely stopped and the banks and financial institutions are not releasing funds against flats under their home financing arrangement.