NEW DELHI: They were touted as India’s most sought-after apartments — a riverfront view, Olympic sports facilities, and top businessmen, politicians and celebrities for neighbours, but the Commonwealth Games Village has just been a bag of worries for the apartment owners.

Somit Makar, an investment banker-turned-executive search firm owner, paid over Rs 2.5 crore for a 3-bedroom apartment at the CWG four years ago, but it’s hardly a dream home for him.

Only 100 of the 1,168 luxury apartments are occupied, the maintenance is shabby and portions of the basement got flooded in the monsoon, the club house and swimming pool aren’t operational, and there are no basic amenities.

“It’s a daily struggle. Many of us bought apartments here because we thought a world-class developer like Emaar was building it. We haven’t got the quality we were promised,” says Makar, who moved into the apartment four months ago.

The struggle starts from buying vegetables to groceries and other stuff such as milk, bread and even medicines. None of these are available close by.

Residents here have to go to the markets that are at least a kilometre away. “We were promised many things but those haven’t been fulfilled. Housewives do not want to move in here,” says ex-bureaucrat RCM Reddy, who now works with IL&FS. He has a five bedroom house in the village.

The complex is currently being maintained by money paid by 300-odd individuals and corporates who had bought apartments from Emaar-MGF as Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which owns over 722 of these apartments, has not started paying its share of the maintenance.

Another former bureaucrat, Dhiraj Mathur, who now works with PwC, says he has not moved in because of lack of infrastructure. “We are suffering because of the differences between DDA and Emaar-MGF,” he says.

While the apartments are quite plush, niggles have cropped up since people started moving in. Tiles have been falling off. Some owners walked in on damaged wooden flooring as water had seeped in.

The common facilities such as the clubhouse, shops and the swimming pool are not operational because DDA is yet to give a ‘completion certificate’ to Emaar-MGF since it claims there are violations in the structure.

A spokeswoman for Emaar MGF says, “The clubhouse is complete. We have procured and installed all equipment.

The clubhouse is awaiting OC from DDA. The necessary formalities for putting the furniture in place are in progress but it would be installed after receipt of completion certificate from DDA.” DP Singh, the chief engineer at DDA who is incharge of the project, declined comment on the issue as it is sub judice. The root cause, says Reddy, is ownership issues.

“DDA and Emaar should stop the blame game. DDA has a big share of the apartments and if it wants, the issue can be sorted out quickly,” he adds.

In their apartment contracts, buyers were also promised membership in the DDA sports complex next door, but that has not happened. While Emaar MGF says the membership of the sports complex lies exclusively with DDA, apartment owners contest that it is part of their contract.

“Emaar MGF can promise anything, but this was not vetted by DDA. People should have verified this with DDA,” says DDA’s Singh.

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