CHB’s pride,buyer’s nightmare: Housing project leaves many jittery

All was well till media reports pertaining to disputes and controversies about the project surfaced. “Earlier I did not believe in these reports,but later enquired with the Parsvnath’s office. The staff could not give any satisfactory response to my queries. In September,I finally decided to apply for the withdrawal of my booking,” added Harinder.  

He was taken aback when he learnt from the CHB’s office that almost every buyer had applied for the withdrawal. Moreover,according to the contract rules,he had to pay a penalty of 5 per cent of the total amount of the unit (not the amount paid so far) in case of withdrawal,which amounted to nearly Rs 6 lakh. He has now been running from pillar to post for the last four months to get the remaining money.

“With no fault of buyers,they are made to go through harassment and financial loss. In fact,CHB officials told us we should consider ourselves fortunate to receive whatever amount we could,” said Harinder’s wife.

With hardly any buyer left,ten withdrawals of bookings were received in the last week. The total sale proceeds from nearly 140 units of the project amounted to Rs 81.90 crore,of which,CHB has refunded Rs 15.41 crore. Nearly 95 per cent of the buyers are NRIs,including from countries like China. The maximum withdrawals,53,were of one-bedroom apartments,also known as studio apartment,launched at a price of Rs 52 lakh. The fate of the project is expected to be decided on December 18 in the meeting of arbitrators.  

Buyers of other residential projects by PDL in the tricity are also worried about their money. Compounding their concerns is no response from the developer to the buyers’ queries,which can trigger the withdrawal of bookings from these projects too. The developer launched a residential project,Royale,on an area of eight acres in Sector 20,Panchkula,in April 2007 and another project,‘Greens’,on 60 acres in Dera Bassi in 2007.

UT’s dream project may also receive a jolt
The Chandigarh Housing Board has recently received an award from the Centre for “excellent implementation” of its slum-rehabilitation project under the JNNURM,but the Rs 1,200 crore project could receive a jolt if Prideasia fails. The UT has already received Rs 400-crore grant from the Centre for the project and the remaining money has to be pumped in from the funds generated out of the Prideasia project. As the fate of Prideasia hangs in balance,the slum-rehabilitation project may face hurdles in its completion.