Delayed affordable housing projects in Gurugram under DTCP lens

GURUGRAM: All the delayed affordable housing projects in the city are now under the scanner of the department of town and country planning (DTCP), TOI has learnt.

Gurgaon has 80 affordable housing projects, of which some 40 are either running behind schedule or yet to kick off. As per government norms, an affordable housing project has to be completed within four years from the date of getting a licence. DTCP, the officials said, has now started a review of all such delayed projects in the wake of repeated complaints from aggrieved homebuyers.

“The review was, in fact, ordered by the director of town and country planning, KM Pandurang. And in the preliminary survey, we found 50% affordable housing projects in Gurgaon are either completed or at various stages of completion, while the remaining are behind schedule,” said an official.

What’s worrying is that many developers of delayed projects have already taken up to 65% of the house cost. “So, the department is considering registering FIRs against the erring developers and also asking buyers to stop making further payment,” the official said.

Buyers have welcomed the development.

“It has been two years and the developer has not started any construction work at the site. We have been paying the instalments,” said Arun Mishra, who has invested in an affordable housing project in Sector 37D.

Another buyer, Mukesh Sharma said he had invested in a project in Sector 103 some three years back. “Since then, only 5% work has been completed. The developer sent the demand notice for the remaining payment but they did not answer our queries related to the delay.”

Senior town planner Ravi Sihag said, “We will conduct review meetings in the next 15 days to monitor the progress of the delayed projects. We’ll take action against all those developers responsible for slow construction work at their projects if they fail to give a satisfactory reply to the notices already issued to them.”