Gurugram: The ambitious affordable housing project scheme launched by the state government and district authorities in Gurugram a few years back is stuck in limbo, with only eight of the 62 housing projects announced over the years having been completed, no construction started on 16 projects and 37 of them still under construction.
Much to the woes of homebuyers in the city, builders have now got another excuse to delay the projects, citing a lack of labour in light of the COVID-19 crisis. While the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) in Gurugram has stepped in, devising a plan of action to hold a weekly review of all the pending projects, authorities have found a hard time maintaining the already completed projects and even finding eligible residents to fill these homes.
The biggest let down for homebuyers in the affordable housing space has been the failure of the Aashina housing scheme that is believed to be Gurugram's first housing project. Set up in 2011, the housing project was to provide 1080 flats under the EWS category. Yet, in the seventh year of its completion, there has not been a single occupant of the flats. The poor condition of the flats is only increasing the maintenance costs of a cash-strapped Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).
Senior officials of the DTCP have now, however, assured strict action against erring builders who are not following regulations and the prescribed timeline to finish the construction of these projects.
According to sources even though there have been huge demands for the flats, the HUDA officials have not been finding the right mechanism to identify the right buyers under the EWS category. Not only is there a problem of delayed projects but various builders and real estate brokers have also found a way to extract more money from homebuyers on the completed projects.
"We have seen a large number of complaints from homebuyers about delayed construction in the affordable housing category. We will now be reviewing the progress of all the ongoing projects and wherever we find violations our officials will not hesitate in taking strict action against such builders," a senior DTCP official said.
Despite the hype over the affordable housing projects, bureaucratic delays and red tape have derailed most of them, ensuring that the poor continue to live in illegal colonies and slums. According to the Haryana urban local
body, over 20 percent of Gurugram's urban area is occupied by slums.