Real Estate Eyesores That Can’t Be Demolished

Twin Towers may be dust. But across NCR, deliveries are still delayed & shady builders still rule.

- Sidhartha

The Supertech Twin Towers in Noida, which were pulled down yesterday, were a symbol of everything wrong with the way the real estate sector has grown in India, especially the national capital region (NCR) of Delhi.

Anyone who has had to register a property or get a transfer memorandum from the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) knows that things don’t move unless you cough up speed money or use some influence. For all the sprucing up of this satellite town of Delhi – with paintings and LED lights adorning every possible pillar and electricity pole – there is hardly any change in the situation on the ground, despite the so-called e-governance initiatives.

Things are much the same across all municipal bodies and development authorities in NCR. The most visible sign of it is the mess that the real estate sector is in, with the homebuyers, in several cases, waiting for over a decade to get the delivery of their apartments.

Absence of rule of law

There is rampant violation of building bylaws and encroachments have come up all over the place. But authorities turn a blind eye to all this, as was the case with the Twin Towers, which rose 32 floors above the ground without anyone from the administrative body in Noida noticing it.

If it wasn’t for the courts, the eyesore would have remained there for good.