Buyers to pay a price, realtors to pass down water cost

The latest Punjab and Haryana high court order asking the state to seal all borewells at construction sites in Gurgaon has come as a major blow for hundreds of developers.

The latest Punjab and Haryana high court order asking the state to seal all borewells at construction sites in Gurgaon has come as a major blow for hundreds of developers.

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Many under-construction projects in newly-carved sectors 58-111, under the Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex 2025, are among the affected ones.

Developers have warned that the order could result in escalation of costs as they would have to now source water from far-off distances, possibly from other cities such as Noida. This would ultimately impact property buyers as builders will have no option but to shift the burden on to them, said a realtor.

“Providing water and power is the responsibility of the government. We have to follow the court orders and sealing of borewells would impact construction activity in a big way. We will have to buy water from private suppliers or tankers. This will definitely hike construction cost,” said Vikas Gupta, managing director, Earth Infrastructure.

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has not yet laid water pipelines in the area, forcing the developers to extract groundwater by borewells.

On July 16, the high court had prohibited the Haryana government from issuing new licences to the developers. Some realtors claimed projects in which civil construction had been completed would not be impacted.