News: Homes delivered but no power connection: Vipul World buyers-26-05-2022
DHBVN stopped providing new electricity connections to 16 societies in July last year for non-payment of charges for developing power infrastructure by developers. DHBVN had to recover Rs 317 crore from the developers of these colonies.
GURUGRAM: : Pankaj Kumar Dhingra invested his life savings and took a home loan to buy a builder floor for nearly Rs 2 crore in Vipul World, Sector 48. He got the possession and the sale deed was executed on time, but he hasn’t been able to move into his house for the past one year as it doesn’t have an electricity connection. He has no option but to pay both loan EMIs and rent.
Like Dhingra, hundreds of people invested crores in the project but are paying rent even after getting possession. DHBVN stopped providing new electricity connections to 16 societies in July last year for non-payment of charges for developing power infrastructure by developers. DHBVN had to recover Rs 317 crore from the developers of these colonies.
In February, after the intervention of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, DHBVN started issuing connections to residents of 15 colonies with the condition that the individual applicants seeking new connections will have to pay the development charges for deficient infrastructure.
The discom is yet to recover Rs 10.6 crores from Vipul Limited, the developer of Vipul World. To get an electricity connection, residents of the society would have to pay Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for a 6kV connection. At present, 526 plots are vacant in the society and 109 homebuyers have applied for new connections, but none of them have received one.
Now, the residents have installed a notice board on the society gate informing people about the electricity issue, urging people not to invest in properties in the society as they may face similar problems. “My application for a new connection has been rejected four times. Why can't DHBVN cut the connection of these builders' offices to make them pay their dues instead of punishing homebuyers?” Dhingra questioned.
Arvind Sinha, another buyer, said: “My application has been rejected several times. In my building, the first floor has a connection while people on the second to fourth floors have none.”
DHBVN managing director PC Meena said they have stopped issuing new connections to any new project of Vipul Limited where occupation certificate has not been issued. “We are working to resolve the issue,” he said.
