Thursday, May 13, 2021

Rivali Park becomes first SWAMIH project to be completed

 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hands over possession virtually to home buyers



Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday virtually handed over possession to homebuyers of CCI Projects’ Rivali Park project in Borivali, which was acknowledged as the first completed real estate project under the alternative investment fund Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) for stressed projects.

The SWAMIH fund was launched by Sitharaman in November 2019 to provide last mile funding to real estate projects starved of construction funding due to liquidity issues in the market. CCI Projects, a part of the Cable Corporation of India, was one of the four real estate developers from Mumbai Metropolitan Region to get approval for the last mile funding. Rivali Park Wintergreen is the Phase 1 of the project spread over 7 acres consisting 708 units ranging from 1 BHK to 4 BHK.

Addressing the virtual event, Sitharaman said she is very pleased to see that SWAMIH Fund has completed its first residential project. More so, it is an important achievement since the SWAMIH Fund has worked its way through the difficult period of COVID-19 pandemic, she added.

The Finance Minister said that the Government of India had stepped in to provide funding to the stressed affordable and mid-income housing projects thereby giving relief to the home buyers who had invested their hard earned savings. Smt. Sitharaman said the Government believes that once these homes are constructed and completed, a large amount of capital locked up in these projects will be released.

The Finance Minister said it will provide employment to construction workers and will provide impetus to the allied industries such as steel and cement. It will improve the portfolios of Banks and NBFCs and significantly improve the economic sentiment in the nation, she said. She was all praise for SBICap Ventures team for converting a policy announcement into an on-the-ground funding institution that has achieved significant progress within a short time span.

The virtual event was also attended by MoS Finance Anurag Singh Thakur, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs Ajay Seth, State Bank of India chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, SBI CAP Ventures Irfan Kazi, and CCI Projects director Rohan Khaitan.  

Khatau said SWAMIH fund approved Rs 180 crore funding for Rivali Park in February 2020 shortly before the national COVID-19 lockdown was announced and the project has used Rs 125 crore. He said his company was just starting the construction process in March 2020 when the lockdown was announced. He said thankfully the government allowed labour at construction sites if the developer organised facilities for them to live on site as per COVID-19 protocols. “We expanded capacity and deployed 600 workers on site. We had to create more space for workers to live on site, and follow COVID-19 protocols. We had medical checkups for the workers twice a week. We had 60 contractors and vendors working in close co-ordination. What was crucial was that SWAMIH’s objectives aligned with our objectives – which was giving homes to people,” Khaitan said.


“This is a remarkable milestone in our commitment towards delivery & handover of the Wintergreen phase to our customers, who have placed immense faith in us and our vision to create a holistic experience. We are very pleased and grateful to have traversed the last mile with timely financial aid and intervention from the SWAMIH Investment Fund. We have obtained Occupancy Certificates (OCs) for the entire project and have commenced the possession process that will help us deliver the promise of a dream home to our valued homebuyers,” Khaitan said.

 

Irfan Kazi from SWAMIH Fund said the investment fund had approved 204 projects in 41 cities for last mile funding which will benefit 1.16 lakh home buyers stuck in half complete projects possession of their homes. In the next one year, the fund will complete 26 projects which will ensure completion of 12,600 homes.

 


Asked what differentiates SWAMIH fund from other lenders, Kazi said the fund has a stringent scrutiny process that involves five third party analysis, and it provides complete funding without being dependent on sales and collections by the developer. “We provide enough finance to complete the project, and all funding is used only and only for construction and completion of the project. The fund takes a construction finance approach, not loan account finance. We also had a Project Management Company representative on site at Rivali Park who was doing daily reporting on labour movement, construction progress etc,” he said.

 

 

 

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