Prized locales plagued with problems
Real estate
By Vasu

THEY were once the sought after locales to live in. The address every aspiring businessman wanted for his residence and the only areas where the Capital’s elite would ever contemplate living in. Areas like Green Park, Gulmohar Park, Hauz Khas, Geetanjali Enclave, Navjeevan Vihar, Saket, Safdarjung Development Area were the residential colonies for the upper- middle class, senior officials, bureaucrats and the professionals who formed housing societies and got land allocated in the good old days when a 250-sq. yard plot cost around Rs 50,000 at the most.

Later with the prices positioned around an unaffordable Rs 1 crore for 100 sq. yards at an average, the colonies retained their
original occupants and succeeded in keeping out all except the very rich who worked even harder to retain the exclusivity.

Then came the real estate crunch and the prices began to tumble. Suddenly the Rs 3-crore plots were available for Rs 50 lakh and even less and the builders began to take a fresh look. Working out the economics, they took control. Earlier builders had only targeted the old colonies, places where houses were at least 20 years old, to make way for multistorey flats. But today in the upper-middle class colonies, the new building process involves pulling down a single or double-storeyed house which is perhaps only a few years old at the most. Padam, a resident of Geetanjali Enclave, says that in the past six months, five houses which were barely three years old have been razed to the ground and the process of converting them into four floors of flats has begun. A few of these flats are already in the finishing stage and have been taken up by the new owners for rates ranging from Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 1.75 crore. Taking the cost of the original house to be around Rs 2.5 crore, the builder has raked in less than a year more than what he initially invested.

Emotions are being set aside to make quick returns and quick money, says Hardwari Lal, a senior resident of an upper-middle class colony. Seeing a perfect house being razed to the ground and being converted into a protruding apartment block has become a regular feature over the past one year. Another impact has been the immense pressure these apartments place on the already strained infrastructure provided by the local authorities. Shortage of water is a perpetual problem along with poor supply of power, badly maintained roads, and the crowding of business and commercial centres on the main roads. In addition there is the constant hum of generators and fumes emanating from them to support the constant power requirements of the inhabitants of multistorey buildings.

The civic problems in these once upon a time up-market colonies have escalated to a point where most residents have started demanding a resolution for the privatisation of such services. For all practical purposes this has already been done. "We pay for the cleaning up of the area and the repair of water lines. The roads are normally tarred and repaired at the expense of the society concerned. Gates for security, hiring of chowkidaars and the disposal of garbage are all matters which we are handling on a collective basis", says Hardwari Lal.

Maintenance of parks, installation of swings for children and a rudimentary medical centre are other activities most colonies do on their own, says Padam, since the MCD plans and disbursals are mostly on paper.
Over the years water has become one constant problem for the ‘posh’ localities of Green Park, Sarvodya Enclave, Hauz Khas, Safdarjung Enclave et al.Water is, at times, released only for an hour and that
too in pipes which have not been cleaned or repaired. This has led to massive investments in filtration devices. "One definitely does not get the services which one expects after paying what is probably the highest slab of property tax in the country", says Padam. Interestingly, a Delhi citizen can take recourse to law in case the Municipal Corporation does not provide the services which it is expected to perform. In the Capital, problems of shortage/breakdown of power, unhygienic conditions, removal of garbage etc are common. As a resident of Delhi, it is significant to note that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, established under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, has statutory powers and responsibilities, along with obligatory functions to discharge. If the corporation fails to discharge its obligatory functions, one has the right to force the corporation by law to perform its functions.

But what does a resident of the Capital generally do? Grin and bear it.