By Rohit Vaid

Greater Noida/New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) An atmosphere of uncertainty and panic has returned to plague home buyers and builders in Greater Noida after the Allahabad High Court sided with farmers, quashing land acquisition of 598 hectares in Patwari village - the second acquisition struck down by court this month.

Builders were hard hit by the decision which comes after a Supreme Court order earlier this month, quashing the acquisition of land in the same district's Shahberi village. A total of 156 hectares of village land was acquired by Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) in Shahberi and then sold to developers at exhorbitant rates.

The current decision has left nearly 20,000 home buyers, builders and banks panicky, as huge investments are involved in many projects coming up in the area.

"Consumer sentiments have been hit hard by the decision, but we (builders) are trying to convince them that their initial booking amount is safe and that the projects are not shelved yet as we will approach court," Mohit Gupta, director (marketing) of Amrapali Group, told IANS.

Gupta added that his firm was, however, not largely affected by the high court's Tuesday decision as the two projects that were slated to come up in the Greater Noida region were not put up for booking yet.

Builders said that Greater Noida was losing its cost advantage because of the uncertainty surrounding real estate projects and even banks had started denying loans to consumers and companies alike.

"I was extremely optimistic about buying property in Greater Noida. We had also applied for a loan which now stands rejected," Uttam Bhagat of Impressico Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, who was keen on buying a three-bedroom flat in the area, told IANS.

"In fact, there were many of my colleagues who were interested in similar investment as buying property in Delhi is next to impossible," he added.

Frantic buyers were seen thronging the offices of many large and small builders in the areas affected by the decision.

"The customers' money is safe. We have already informed them that they will either be refunded the money or shifted to another project. There is no need for panic. As per the court's order, we are obliged to do either of these," said a senior official from Supertech, whose project Eco Village-1 was coming in the same area.

Industry officials agree customers may be the biggest losers. Vinod Behl, editor of niche magazine Realty Plus, told IANS that the compensation package was also headed towards a raw deal as developers were struggling under huge debts.

"Customers are going to be hit hard since some builders do not have an alternate project to shift them to. Due to the high debt they are under, it would also be difficult for them to pay higher compensation," Behl added.

Experts also blamed the state-run GNIDA for chosing an inappropriate model to acquire land. Farmerland was bought at as low a price as Rs.800 per square foot and then sold for Rs.11,000 per square foot.

Meanwhile, GNIDA CEO Rama Raman said Wednesday the authority will appeal against the order by either filing a review petition before the Allahabad High Court or file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court.

"We will study the judgment and then decide," Raman said.

Giving merits for the petition, the CEO contended that there is a lot of difference between Patwari and Shahberi cases, where also the land acquisition had been quashed - this time by the Supreme Court - earlier this month.

"In Shahberi village, only 15 percent farmers took the compensation while 85 percent farmers protested the acquisition while in Patwari, the case is reverse. Here 85 percent farmers took compensation and only 15 percent farmers remained to contest the acquisition," he said.