MHADA lifts stop work from a project stalled for 17 years

A stop work notice which brought a project spread over 9 acres in Jogeshwari to a grinding halt,

crashing dreams of 576 occupant families and 350 home buyers, has recently been lifted by

MHADA’s building permission cell. This is after Pune based Mantra Group was asked to take the

over the project by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

The saga revolved around redevelopment of MHADA colony which had 576 houses under the

banner of Majaswadi Sarvodayanagar Co-operative Housing Society. Back in 2008, the residents

decided to undertake the redevelopment of the colony, as a composite redevelopment scheme.

They appointed Acme Realities Pvt Ltd to execute the project. The project involved rehousing all

the occupant families and using the remaining land parcel for constructing sale towers. Acme

started construction of three towers for 171 of the 576 original occupants, and also launched two

sale towers. They sold houses to 350 home buyers in the two towers.

In order to finance the scheme, they raised substantial funds, which by the time the matter came

to NCLT had reached Rs 4,326.72 crores. When Acme could not complete the project, home

buyers moved NCLT. In August last year, NCLT entrusted Mantra to complete the project. Total

of 14 developers were in the fray for the project.

Within weeks of taking over, mantra cleared back rent of 316 tenants and paid them rent for the

current year. The 92 tenants on site were paid 1 year rent in advance and next year's pdc was

handed over along with hardship charges. Mantra has started work on homebuyer towers and is

now pushing towards completion

To add to this, Mantra has recently received funding of Rs 340 crores from ASK Property Fund,

the real estate arm of the Blackstone-backed ASK Asset & Wealth Management Group. The

funding will enable Mantra to put the development of Jogeshwari project in fast track.

Mantra Properties has established itself in Pune market. Over the past 18 years, the developer has

completed 16 large projects spanning housing 7,500 plus families.

Amit Bhagat, Co-founder, MD & CEO, ASK Property Fund, stated“ We remain committed to

providing growth capital for land acquisition of residential projects linked to approvals and

requiring financial closure of up to INR 500 crore.”

Rohit Gupta, CEO, Mantra Group, said, “The collaboration between ASK Property Fund and

Mantra Group is coming at a very opportune time. Of the three projects that are being invested

into, two of them have been stuck for a significant time, leaving many homebuyers in a lurch. In

the Mumbai project, Mantra’s acquisition and ASK Property Fund’s investment will impact lives of

576 families residing on the land parcel and another 350 families who had bought homes in the

erstwhile proposed development. As a group, we are committed to delivering quality homes and

fulfilling long-pending wishes of homebuyers.”