Emaar Boulder Hills: Woes of The Villa Owners

The controversial Emaar Boulder Hills project, which is under scanner of the CBI, may take time to get resolved, but it hasn't been stalled completely. At least 12 of the total 133 villas in this plush golf club-cum-residential venture in Gachibowli are already nearing completion with some owners even planning to move in to their new homes by the end of this year.

But before these customers can make arrangements for their 'griha pravesh', they are facing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths who have started interrogating villa owners since Monday, for more leads on the APIIC-Emaar scam. According to buyers who faced the grilling session on Day 1, the investigating body is said to be listing down every minute detail about each owner in order to get to the bottom of the case. "From my primary bank account statements, right from 2005-2011, to details of my income tax returns (for all these six years), MoU signed between me and Emaar MGF and agreement of sale, the interrogators went through everything during that one-and-a-half-hour session. They even checked bank statements of my family members, questioned me on how I came to know about the Boulder Hills project, how much I paid for the plot etc," the buyer said while accusing the developer (Emaar MGF) for putting its customers through such a harrowing experience.

As per the rulebook, it is mandatory for every plot owner of the project to get a go-ahead from IALA (Industrial Area Local Authorities), an arm of APIIC responsible for land allotments and granting permissions for industrial and residential development on any land belonging to the government body. "We (owners of these 12 villa plots) luckily got the IALA permission before the scam broke out and have been able to go ahead with the work. The rest haven't, so construction of their houses has not yet started," added another villa owner. But owners pointed out that the residential project still does not have most of the basic amenities. "The developer has not put in place water, electricity or drainage facilities in the area, though they had promised to do so. So even if we move in, we will have to buy water and take care of the other issues at our own expense," the owner said.

Records indicate that all these sprawling bungalows, which belong either to cash-rich industrialists, bureaucrats or celebrities, were bought in the first lot of sales carried out by Emaar MGF in 2005. "When we bought these plots for development, the project was free of any controversy. Hence, we also got the required clearance from the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC)," said a property owner in Boulder Hills whose bungalow is in the final stages of construction.