The arrest of T G Varghese, director of Blue Dot Constructions, for cheating several people in the name of Soorya Avenue at Kadvanthra has brought to light a major graft.
Soorya Avenue apartments, the construction of which was undertaken by the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) in partnership with the company in 2005, proved a major blunder for the authority after it incurred a loss of Rs 11 crore. The GCDA had handed over its prime land to the company for constructing the apartments.
GCDA officials believe that the investigation will unravel the major graft behind the project in which the land was given without considering its face value.
Information available with the GCDA says that the land was handed over to the company without verifying the capital and projects undertaken by the company in the past.
According to the records available with City Express, it has been revealed that the project structure documents regarding handing over the land and value of the land is missing at GCDA.
Land Value
As part of the project, GCDA had to hand over a 44-cent plot at Gandhi Nagar near Kadavanthara to Blue Dot Constructions. The land had a market value of `40 lakh a cent in 2005. According to estimation of the GCDA officials, the total face value of the plot itself was around `17.60 crore in 2005. According to the pact, the company should hand over 30 per cent of flats to GCDA. And, 14 of the 48 flats were handed over to the GCDA.
But, after the auction of 12 flats, the GCDA could recover only `6.60 crore on an average of `55 lakhs for each. After providing land worth `17.60 crore to the Blue Dot, the GCDA could recover only `6.60 crore leading to a loss of `11 crore from the project.
Present GCDA chairman N Venugopal said the manner in which GCDA handed over the land for the project without verifying the details of the construction company was unbelievable.
“The GCDA had to suffer a huge loss from the project. After the arrest of Varghese, all maintenance works had to be undertaken by the GCDA. We had taken `9 lakh as security from Varghese for the project and this fund will be used for maintenance work. It has come to light that the company didn’t have enough capital to construct the flats. The deal took place without verifying the details of the contractor. The deal is likely to be corrupted. We will verify it,” he added.
Consent a must
As per the deal, the flats will registered only with the consent of the GCDA. Now, the people who had been cheated by the contractor are seeking money from the GCDA. Besides, the contractor had availed loans from various banks using the documents. The company had tried to encroach another 40 cent plot adjacent to land allotted for the flat construction using the GCDA order. However, the bid was foiled following the timely intervention of GCDA.
Meanwhile, GCDA officials raise suspicion that there were corruption in other land deals that took place during the same time period.
“We don’t know whether corruption took place at the higher levels. We will launch for a separate inquiry. Development on the case against Varghese is being closely monitored,” N Venugopal said.
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