Unitech's new board may seek money from stress fund to construct stalled projects: Hiranandani

A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud gave two months to the new board of Unitech to prepare the resolution framework of the company and sought its report. The Centre had said it would not infuse any funds for completion of pending projects of the company it would just direct a moratorium for 12 months.

New Delhi: Realty firm Hiranandani group's MD Niranjan Hiranandani, who has been appointed as one of the board members to find resolution for Unitech, said the construction on projects that are networth positive could start early while a help could be sought from the government's Rs 25,000-crore stress fund to complete other stalled residential properties.

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the proposal of the Centre to take over the management control of embattled realty firm Unitech. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud gave two months to the new board of Unitech to prepare the resolution framework of the company and sought its report.

Besides Hiranandani, NBCC's former CMD A K Mittal, HDFC's Renu Sud Karnad and Embassy Group chairman Jitu Virwani are part of the board.

"As an industry patron, I look up to this important responsibility as a public service in a positive light to attempt and assure resolving the issues of numerous stranded homebuyers," Hiranandani said in a statement.

"The key to success lies in hitting the ground running by quickly evaluating the viable projects which are positive net worth and submitting the resolution plan to the SC and start the ball rolling initially," he added.

Hiranandani said the court's decision to stay all the on-going cases for two months is a good move as this would help in focusing on the real problem of the company rather than overseeing legal issues.

"There is a possibility of at least 50-60 per cent of Unitech's projects ultimately being net worth positive, so I think there is a good opportunity to start these projects early. However, we may seek some help from the stress fund of the SBI in order to take care of the funding for the interim period," said Hiranandani, who is also President of Assocham and NAREDCO