Haryana's town planning department cancelled Ocean Seven Buildtech's licence for its stalled Expressway Towers project in Sector 109, citing years of inaction and a prima facie diversion of buyer funds.
If you've been tracking stalled projects in Gurugram, this one's been a long time coming. The Directorate of Town and Country Planning cancelled Ocean Seven Buildtech's licence for its affordable housing project, Expressway Towers, in Sector 109, on August 7, 2026. The licence itself originally came into effect back in June 2016 and expired in June 2021, and DTCP's order states the developer never validly renewed it, meaning the project has technically been running on borrowed time for close to five years.
The cancellation wasn't a paperwork formality. A joint inspection on July 6, 2026 found no meaningful construction progress compared to an earlier inspection in March 2025, effectively confirming the project had been sitting idle for well over a year with nothing to show for it. DTCP cited non-compliance with licence conditions and the Affordable Housing Policy, 2013, and referred specifically to Rules 24, 26(2), 27 and 28 under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Rules, 1976. This also isn't Ocean Seven's first brush with regulatory action; the group faced an earlier enforcement move back in February 2023.
Beyond the construction delays, DTCP's order flags something more serious: a prima facie case of substantial diversion of buyer funds meant for construction. The department has asked the developer to produce payment details for buyers who allegedly never received proper receipts, and an FIR was registered by the Haryana State Enforcement Bureau back in August 2025. DTCP also referenced correspondence from the Enforcement Directorate in December 2025 regarding alleged licence, RERA and fund-diversion violations, suggesting this case has been building across multiple agencies well before the licence was formally pulled.
With the licence cancelled, the 7.5-acre site and its buildings now vest with the government, and DTCP has barred Ocean Seven from creating any further third-party rights over the land, closing off any last-minute resale or subletting attempts. The order also directs initiation of the Rule 19 process, a mechanism that can allow a third-party agency to step in and complete a stalled project. That's genuinely the most consequential part of this order for the Expressway Towers Buyers Association, which had already approached DTCP back in March seeking exactly that, government intervention and a replacement developer to finish what Ocean Seven couldn't.
Cases like this are a useful reminder of what to actually check before booking into any project, not just the brochure and the price. A licence's original validity period, whether it's been renewed on schedule, and a developer's RERA complaint history are all publicly checkable details that would have flagged trouble here years before DTCP's inspection did. If you're comparing options across our Gurugram listings, it's worth running that same basic check, licence status and construction-linked payment disclosures, on any project before committing a significant upfront payment, exactly the kind of practice that would have protected Expressway Towers buyers years ago.
DTCP's order sets the legal wheels in motion, but the practical outcome for existing buyers isn't settled yet. Whether a Rule 19 agency actually takes over construction, how much of the diverted funds (if confirmed) get recovered, and how long affected buyers wait for either possession or a refund all remain open questions the coming months should start to answer.
