Vuda cancels pact with Jurong

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 18, 2012: With a local court dismissing the petition of the Jurong India Limited seeking a direction to the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) not to assign the construction of its housing project Harita to a third party, the Vuda cancelled its agreement with the Singapore-based company.

According to highly placed sources, the Vuda is now getting ready to invite global tenders within a week to finish the mega housing project. The project, which was conceived way back in 2003, has been embroiled in controversies since then.

Initially, it was proposed to construct 3,300 houses in 40 acres of land with an outlay of Rs.200 crore. But, due to problems in land acquisition and other issues it could not materialise and has been rede-signed to make affordable to all sections of people.

Then, Vuda entered into an MoU with ‘Jurong Consultancy’ to take up the venture and the site for the project was also finalised in 2005. But, after sometime authorities realised that the proposed site belongs to the Archeology Department and the dispute continued for four years. Finally, the Rs.100-crore mega project, Harita, Singapore Class Township, was formally launched on November 23, 2009 in partnership with Jurong Infrastructure for constructing 710 housing units. It was scheduled to complete in 24 months.

Due to various reasons, the project could not complete and half of the constructions have only been completed. The works were delayed and the design has also been changed from 12-storied structure to G+4. As the works have been delayed, the Vuda issued notices to Jurong in view of the pressure from the flats buyers.

But, the company moved to court and finally Vuda extended time till May 2012 for completion of the whole project. People who booked flats in the project have been afraid of losing money, which had been paid as interest to the banks. “After the court order we have cancelled the contract with Jurong and very soon we will be inviting global tenders to finish the project,” said a Vuda senior official.