Trump Tower: HRERA asks TCP dept to explain ‘lapse’

Sumedha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Gurugram, March 23

In a twist to the Trump Tower case, the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) has sought an explanation from the district Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department on how Olive Realcon Pvt Ltd was registered with the regulator as it did not have the development licence.

HRERA chairman KK Khandelwal said, “On one hand, the department did not grant joint development and marketing rights licence to the company as applied for by the Indian partner, Manglam Multiplex and, on the other, it registered the company with RERA in Chandigarh. At that time, one of department officials was the interim regulator.”

“We cannot say what is wrong or right, but we have sought an explanation from the department as to how one of the players, Olivia, was registered with the regulatory authority without development rights. The senior official of the department was the interim regulator at that time,” he said.

The real estate project sparked controversy when then Town and Country Planning Department Director TL Satyaprakash had, a month ago, issued a notice to four players — Olive, Manglam Multiplex, M3M Developers and Tribeca Developers — asking them to explain how they gave advertisements when they did not have development rights. Sources said Satyaprakash was transferred because of the notice.

The HRERA, meanwhile, claims that prima facie, it appears to be a procedural lapse on part of the developers rather than intentional fraud or cheating.

“We will soon be having a hearing with all stakeholders. Till now, the investigation hints at it being more of a procedural lapse rather than an act to cheating or defrauding homebuyers. The final outcome, however, will depend on the investigation,” added Khandelwal.

Manglam Multiplex is the licence holder of the project and made a request to the TCP Department in October 2017 to assign joint development and marketing rights to Olive Realcon for constructing and marketing the Trump Tower apartments spread over 2.83 acres in Gurugram.