MUMBAI: In a move that will address claims of hundreds of homebuyers and lenders, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has cleared the sale of Indias first private hill station, Lavasa, to Darwin Platform Infrastructure.The NCLT order approving the resolution plan submitted by Darwin came after the lenders voted in favour of the resolution plan.
It envisages a payout of Rs 1,814 crore over eight years; it includes Rs 929 crore to lenders and spending Rs 438 crore on delivering fully constructed houses to home buyers.There are 837 homebuyers whose claims have been admitted.
Their admitted claims total Rs 409 crore.
The total claim amount admitted by the company, including from lenders and operational creditors, is Rs 6,642 crore.The resolution plan envisages the delivery of fully constructed properties to homebuyers within a period of five years of receiving environmental clearance on an actual cost basis.
Homebuyers will have to pay actual future construction costs to Darwin towards obtaining constructed properties in the project.In order to provide a transparent mechanism for the construction costs, the resolution applicant proposes that it shall constitute a construction cost determination committee of 4 members consisting of equal representation of FCCA/homebuyers representatives and the resolution applicants management team, the order said.Shyam Babu Gautam and Kuldip Kumar Kareer, technical and judicial members of the NCLT, issued the order on Friday.The Mumbai-headquartered Darwin group had earlier shown interest in the bidding process for Jet Airways and Reliance Capital.
The group has interests in retail, realty and infrastructure and other businesses.
According to their group website, chairman Ajay Harinath Singh is a first-generation entrepreneur.The top financial creditors of Lavasa are Union Bank of India, L-T Finance, Arcil, Bank of India and Axis Bank.Located in Mulshi Valley in the Western Ghats, near Pune, Lavasa was developed by Hindustan Construction Company which had envisaged a European-style city.
Lavasa Corporation had received permission to construct dams on the Warsgaon river and build the required infrastructure for a city.After the company failed to meet its payment obligations, Raj Infrastructure Development India, one of Lavasas creditors, filed a bankruptcy petition against the company which was admitted in August 2018.