NEW DELHI: India’s Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today handed over possession to homebuyers virtually as the Government of India’s Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) completed its first residential project.
The residential project – Rivali Park, located in suburban Mumbai, was the first housing project in India to have received funding under the SWAMIH Fund. The SWAMIH Fund was launched by Sitharaman in November 2019.
Rivali Park Wintergreen is the first investment by the Fund and is also the first project to get completed. It is a large project spread over 7 acres consisting of 708 units of various configurations. The project is “Rivali Park Wintergreen” developed by CCI Projects Pvt Ltd (CCIPPL), an associate company of Cable Corporation of India Ltd.
Along with Sitharaman, the online event was also graced by Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs; Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance; K. Rajaraman, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance; Shri Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI, and other officials from SBICAP Ventures Limited.
Addressing the virtual event, Finance Minister 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. Further, it will improve portfolios of Banks and NBFCs and significantly improve the economic sentiment in the nation.
Sitharaman complimented and congratulated the 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.
Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), said in his address said that the real estate industry is the second-largest employment generation sector in India and MoHUA has taken several steps in the last couple of years so that the real estate sector not only survives the cycles but thrives, such as RERA, lowering GST rates, PMAY scheme etc.
He further added that MoHUA shared the vision of Ministry of Finance in this last-mile funding endeavour to complete the projects.
Khara (Chairman-SBI) said in his speech said that the Fund is being managed tirelessly to achieve the huge expectations that have been laid out before SBI and partners. He reassured that the SBI Group is fully committed and in line with the Government’s vision to revive the real estate sector and provide relief to homebuyers.
Khara said that in the last 15 months, SBI made significant progress to increase the scale of operations to a level that is generally achieved in 3 to 4 years by other private equity funds.
Commenting on the completion of the project, Rohan Khatau, Director, CCI Projects Pvt Ltd, Developer of Rivali Park 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.”