Stalled redevpts leave residents high and dry………Nauzer Bharucha
Mumbai: The chickens are coming home to roost for many suburban housing societies which had dreamt of riding the real estate boom by inviting builders to redevelop their old properties in return for larger apartments and hard cash.
A slew of agreements between housing societies and developers, mainly in the western suburbs, has fallen through or is being renegotiated. The agreements include the Khira Nagar complex in Santa Cruz, Nutan Nagar in Bandra and the Adarsh Nagar and Shiv Shahi housing societies in Worli. These societies had negotiated deals with developers running into several hundred crores.
Consider the plight of the 32 residents of the Santacruz Sangam Cooperative Housing Society on S V Road. Their dilapidated three-storey building was demolished in May 2008, but theres no sign of the redevelopment work starting. Worse, the builder last month stopped paying rentRs 33,000 to Rs 55,000 a month for each flat ownerfor their transit accommodation.
Four years ago, when the residents decided to appoint a reputed builder, Bricklayer Constructions (Rustomjee), to redevelop their dilapidated building, they assumed that the project was in safe hands. Society members said the developers popular slogan, Come home, assured them that they would soon move into a brand new building with each flat owner getting a substantially larger space in the new construction.
According to the agreement for development signed in July 2007, Rustomjee agreed to give 26% extra space to each of the flat owners whose old apartments ranged from 558 sq ft to 900 sq ft.
STUCK IN LIMBO Sangam CHS | SANTA CRUZ | Building (above) demolished in May 2008. Builder has now stopped paying rent for transit flats (up to Rs 55,000 per flat owner per month)
STUCK IN LIMBO Sangam CHS | SANTA CRUZ | Building (above) demolished in May 2008. Builder has now stopped paying rent for transit flats (up to Rs 55,000 per flat owner per month)
Bharatiya Bhavan Society | KHAR (W) | APA had bid Rs 180cr for 37 flats in 2 buildings
Nutan Nagar | BANDRA | A developer had offered Rs 451cr for the cluster of low-rise buildings
Khira Nagar | SANTA CRUZ | Rs 900cr deal with Punebased Kumar Developers for 640 flats in 16 buildings stuck because of title disputes
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