MahaRERA's crackdown on Mumbai developers: 300 realty projects to be scrutinised for mismatched expenses

Mumbai: Around 300 developers or real estate projects are in trouble for having declared expenses that do not correlate with the construction at the site. The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) will launch an investigation soon into such erring builders and projects.

In the last 6-8 months, MahaRERA realised that in the compliance documents some realtors have shown expenses that are far more than construction done at the project site. As there is a mismatch between expenditure and work done, they are in for scrutiny. These projects are worth Rs500 crore and more.

In the last couple of months, a team of investigators has been put together after inviting bids for the job. This team is in the process of drafting the points and questions required to investigate the issue. The investigation will cover the approximate expenditure required to achieve each stage of construction. This will be compared with the expenses detailed out by the project promoters vis-à-vis construction level achieved. The information will be compared with the project completion timeline.

The process might help in revealing if any large project is headed towards stress and is likely to get stuck leaving the home buyers in the lurch. MahaRERA sources did not disclose the project names and developers against whom action will be initiated.

The in-site investigation will commence from February onwards to cover the projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune. Some of the projects in the list include projects that have overshot their completion timeline. In the first round, 40-50 projects will be covered.