Government of India’s Special Window completes first residential project

New Delhi, May 13: Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, today handed over possession to homebuyers virtually as Government of India’s Special Window for Affordable & Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) completes 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 Smt. Sitharaman in November 2019. Rivali Park Wintergreens 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 Wintergreens” developed by CCI Projects Pvt Ltd (CCIPPL), an associate company of Cable Corporation of India Ltd. Along with Smt. Sitharaman, the online event was also graced by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs; Shri Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary,  Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance; Shri 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 Smt. 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. Smt. 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. Shri Durga Shankar 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. Shri Dinesh Kumar 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. Shri 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. About SWAMIH In a short time-span of 1.5 years since inception, the SWAMIH Investment Fund I today is one of the largest private equity teams in India and has done commendable work despite COVID-19 related restrictions. The Fund so far has given its final approval to 72 projects that will complete 44,100 homes, while 132 projects have received preliminary approval, which will complete an additional 72,500 homes. Thus, the Fund is targeting to complete an aggregate of 1,16,600 homes. This Fund is bridging the trust deficit between homebuyers and developers by completing construction and delivering homes without depending on any other source of finance.