By Vivek Gupta The Chandigarh Administration is set to invite officials of New Delhi-based private realtor, Parsvnath Pvt Ltd, to discuss the recent arbitration order, allowing the administration to take over land meant for the controversial Prideasia project in the IT Park by repaying the company. It is learnt that the invitation for the meeting, to be held on January 27, will be dispatched on Thursday. Home Secretary Anurag Agarwal, Finance Secretary Sarvjit Singh and Chairman of the Chandigarh Housing Board B S Bhalla will represent the administration. The matter goes back to 2005 when the Chandigarh Housing Board signed an agreement with Parsvnath to jointly build high-end flats and villas on 123 acres of land in IT Park; at an estimated cost of about Rs 821 crore. The developer paid the administration Rs 517 crore, but the project failed to take off, following which, both parties sought arbitration in 2009. The arbitration award, delivered by Justice R V Raveendran (retd) on January 9, asked the private developer to return the land to the administration within a month, and the administration was asked to repay Rs. 517 crore (principal deposit of Parsvnath) along with Rs 50 crore additional interest liability. Further, both parties will return Rs 130 crore to buyers and investors in the ratio of 70:30 (70 per cent by Parsvnath and 30 per cent by the Chandigarh Administration). “We have discussed the judgement in detail but there are so many permutations and combinations in this case that a final call is difficult to take without knowing the stand of the opposite party. What if we pay the money to the private developer, as asked by the arbitrator, and the developer does not return the land and files an appeal? We will frame our stand only after discussion with the Parsvnath officials and that is the reason, we are officially requesting them for a joint meeting,” a senior UT official said. CHB Chairman B S Bhalla said that the administration hoped that Parsvnath would accept their invitation for a meeting. He said that the administration was “very cautious” because prime land was at stake. Newsline tried to reach the chairman of the Parsvnath Pvt Ltd on the invitation but he could not be contacted. Outgoing Punjab Governor-cum-UT Administrator Shivraj Patil had recently told Newsline that the administration would like to get back the land which is now worth Rs 4,000 crore.
