More than 100 members of a welfare group, who have made payments to book flats at the Shukhobrishti complex in New Town, gathered outside the main gate of the complex on May 15 to protest against the realty group’s delay in handing over their apartments.
Members of the Spriha Spandan Forum were protesting against Bengal Shapoorji Housing Development (BSHD) and Shapoorji Pallonji Group, who have failed to handover their apartments despite reportedly more than 95 per cent of the payments having been made.
Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) has been developing the mass housing complex, Shukhobrishti, over 150 acres in New Town Action Area III, along with BSHD and the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. The project has been divided into 11 phases of about 1,850 flats per phase and comprises more than 20,000 residential units for the middle-income group (MIG) and low-income group (LIG) categories. But out of the nine phases advertised so far, only four have been completed and handed over.
Pratyush Majumdar, 68, had a booked 3-BHK apartment in phase 7 in 2016 but is left high and dry. “I have been paying EMIs since 2017 but am yet to get possession of my property. To date, I have paid almost Rs 30 lakh as EMI for my home loan. I was scheduled to get my flat in July 2020, but even in mid-2022 I see no hope of that happening anytime soon. Had I kept the money as fixed deposit in a bank, I would have earned thousands of rupees as interest per month.”
Neither Hidco nor the Shapoorji Pallonji group, he felt, cared about the plight of the common man. “Since these are flats booked by LIG and MIG people, no one cares. Had this been a VIP property, things would have moved faster,” alleged Majumdar.
Another allottee Raj Chatterjee said: “It was my mother’s dream to shift to our own flat. But she died waiting to see that day. Even her last wish could not be fulfiled!”
Chaitali Dutta, 70, lives with her specially-abled brother and is exasperated. “This is sheer exploitation. They have taken our money but not handed over the building on time. We have filed a case in Calcutta High Court and are waiting for the verdict,” she said.
The advocate for the petitioners in court, Sabyasachi Chatterjee said the pandemic could not be blamed for the delay. “The date for the handovers was long before Covid broke out in this part of the world. The allottees are suffering as they have taken home loans from the bank and the bank interests are mounting by the day. The case has been assigned to the bench of Judge Sabyasachi Bhattacharya in Calcutta High Court and we are in the final stages of the hearing. We are waiting for the court to give us a date for the final verdict,” he said.
When contacted by The Telegraph, Nirav Dalal, business head, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, replied over email: “The construction activities at Shukhobrishti were grossly affected due to the restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues. However, we have overcome all contingencies and challenges and have secured a construction funding of Rs 200 crore from HDFC Capital to resume construction work at the project. The initial disbursement of Rs 125 crore has been completed and the balance Rs 75 crore is in the process of being deployed shortly. The construction activities at site have resumed in full swing with more than 1,200 labourers deployed per day. We plan to start the handover process for approximately 700 apartments from next month onwards and aim to handover approximately 2,500 apartments every year in a phased manner going forward.”
Have you faced problems similar to so many of the Shukhobrishti buyers? Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in