South City-1 gets water after promising to pay Rs 1.27crore bill

The development was the outcome of a meeting between the GMDA officials and members of South City-1 residents’ welfare association (RWA) in which the association assured the development authority that it would clear the dues by November 18.

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) restored the supply of water to South City-1 on Monday, five days after snapping the supply over non-payment of bill amounting to ₹1.27 crore.

GMDA cut supply to South City-1 last Wednesday. (HT archive)

The development was the outcome of a meeting between the GMDA officials and members of South City-1 residents’ welfare association (RWA) in which the association assured the development authority that it would clear the dues by November 18.

A senior GMDA official, present in the meeting, said the bill of ₹1.27 crore was pending for the past one year. But, residents blamed the developer, Unitech Limited, for the problem seeking action against it.

Stating that the GMDA can only act against the developer if the RWA approaches the police seeking penal action against it, GMDA chief engineer Lalit Arora said, “We restored the water supply on residents’ assurance that they will pay the pending bill amount by collecting money from households and that they will, by next week, submit an undertaking in this regard. The residents can pay the pending dues in installments.”

On Tuesday, the RWA called a general body meeting to share the outcome of the meeting with GMDA. It appealed to the residents to contribute to clear the pending dues to avoid disconnection of water supply.

RWA president Ram Gupta said, “The developer should be held responsible for the non-payment of the bill, not the residents. We approached the GMDA because the developer refused to co-operate. RWA has informed the residents of the current situation. We will decide by Sunday if we will lodge an FIR against the developer.”

“We requested Unitech to share account details so that we can know who are paying and who are not paying maintenance and it would help us to resolve the issue. This will give us clarity otherwise why should we trust Unitech for such allegation,” said the RWA president.

Virender Gupta, general secretary of RWA, said, “We held a meeting with MCG chief engineer Raman Sharma on Monday in which Unitech’s representatives were also present. Sharma asked developer to pay the bill. But developer later refused to pay bill.”

A Unitech official wishing anonymity told HT that residents have not paid maintenance to the developer for a couple of years now. “The residents need to pay ₹12 crore in pending maintenance for three years,” the Unitech official said.

In July, the GMDA had cut water supply to South City 2 – another township developed by Unitech Limited—on similar ground. Later, residents collected the money and made partial payment to avail supply.

In July 2017, the developer of Ardee City had disconnected water supply of the colony on ground that residents had not paid maintenance for two years. Developer restored water supply after intervention by the district administration.

There is likelihood that the township’s civic maintenance is transferred to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), but its chief engineer, Raman Sharma said, “MCG is in process of taking over South City 1 and other townships but it will take some time.”