Chennai: It was the worst-ever man made disaster in a decade. Over 61 people were killed as an eleven-storey building, in one of Chennai’s upcoming realty hotspots, came down crashing after a heavy spell of rain in 2014.
While the first building collapsed two years ago, the second tower was demolished on Wednesday by the State Government after the Supreme Court gave a go ahead based on a report submitted by a three-member committee that inspected the site and termed the construction ‘illegal’.
This certainly has left behind unending woes for investors. Seventy six buyers have spent their savings for the project developed by Prime Sristi Housing Private Limited. The distraught buyers continue to pay monthly loan instalments for homes they will never own.
Ratna Mishra, a buyer, said, “We used our savings for the initial investments. We approached the SBI that sanctioned a loan of Rs.58 lakhs. Apart from that, bank also gave a valuation report stating that this building will last for 60 years. The dream we had, that we will own the house became a nightmare since June 2014. My entire savings of 25 years of has gone into this project and over it, we have a liability to the bank.”
Most surprising is the fact that this project got all the necessary approvals.
Ironically, the same CMDA that initially gave the approval for the project in 2013 is now demolishing the same tower.
“We are in a deep financial crisis. Most of the buyers are salaried employees who have invested their hard-earned money and savings into this with a high hope that they would own a property. We are not just paying our rentals but also paying EMIs to banks. Banks are putting in a lot of pressure through DRT. Some of the buyers who had defaulted in payments are now getting notices from Debt Recovery Tribunal. We are paying EMIs for a property that does not exist,” said a buyer Mohammad Shafiq.
The buyers are now banking on the legal remedies. They have moved the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Centre in December 2014, and the case still remains pending.
The buyers say they have time and again approached the builder who has washed his hands off the tragedy.
Rajiv Kumar Mishra said, “When this incident happened, we met the builder in jail and asked him to return the money. He said he will pay the money once he is out of jail. Once he came out, he didn’t do anything. He kept giving deadlines to repay our money and breached it every time. We had no option but take a legal action against the builder for not reimbursing the money we have lost. The matter is still pending before the court as the builder is seeking time on some pretext or the other. We will wait for this judgement and move the Apex Court if we don’t get a positive order.”
For these buyers, there is no light at the end of the tunnel at least in the short-term. The buyers have knocked on the doors of both the Chief Minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s office and hope both the Governments come to their rescue.
In what turned out be a case of dark irony, the project had two towers- faith and belief - but literally and metaphorically, both did not last long.
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