Sankalpa SOS

My previous call(s) to investors and/or flat owners at Sankalpa seems to have been in vain. I am referring to my previous post here. I sincerely hope I could evince some interest this time around as I do have bad news to share. Historically bad news tend to wake up people, more than good news.

So like they say - I have got good news and bad news. Which one do you want first ? Let us do good news first. So here it is. This morning's papers (Sep. 18 - Day after Vishwakarma Pujo; coincidence huh ? Also 2 days after the terrible accident where in the school bus turned turtle ), carry a story about Delhi's/Centre's seal of approval on New Town as a satellite township and has agreed to pay nearly 50 % of the costs of some key infrastructure projects. 

Now while this is certainly good news, I doubt if it would change any ground reality.  TMC Supremo - Ms. B has a notorious past of not heeding to any central directive and is known to be headstrong and her diffident chieftains have already sounded the war bugle by saying this - “The state government will have to return land to the people who were forced to part with it,” said Prabir Kar, Trinamul Congress president of Rajarhat block.

 So now being done with the good news moving on to the bad news. I was at Sankalpa's office in Salt Lake City, day before yesterday, when the bombshell was dropped on me, and I was taken by surprise. 

I have been visiting their office every few weeks just to check up on them and get their take on how the project is coming along and all thing sundries. During most of my visits I would walk in to the lair of the Chief Civil Engineer - one Mr. Goswami. 

Mr. Goswami - has this some what laid back, pleasant demeanor about him. He always sports a smile, and seems to be in touch with the progress of the project.  My inquiries to him would both be general in nature and specific to Site III towers and their proposed deadline. Thus far Mr. G has always assured me that if March 2011 was the due date for the deliverable, they might need the allowable grace period of 3 months. So March 2011 + 3 months = ETA of July 2011. In addition to Mr. G the folks from N.K. Realtors - the marketing agents of Sankalpa, have been singing the same tune.  

Despite what WBIDFC representative Mr. G and N.K. Realtor guys said. Following their progress closely,  man to man, heart to heart I knew July 2011 was a tough sell for Site III. I was mentally preparing myself for may be a move in around "Pujo 2011" time-frame.

So I met Mr. G the other day and he started off in the same vein, telling me only about 25% of the work remains to be done. He said he was very comfortable with the July 2011 deadline for Site III. He added, that they might be sending out pre-possession letters (some form of communication to the investors about a tentative date of possession blah blah blah ..)  by the year end.  Then he had a Eureka moment and quickly ran inside his office, while we were sitting in the lobby area.  He came out with a stinker ! He had made a mistake, actually they are now looking at November 2011 and not July 2011 for Site III ! 

I did a quick math in my head and realized that this amounts to a delay of 8 months from the initial deadline of March 2011, and even a 5 month delay from the revised ETA of July 2011. While I understand delays happen, I am sure there might be at least some investors like me out there who do not have the stomach of bearing the financial burden of this delay. Living in a rented accommodation as I am, and paying through my nose makes me really long for the day when I can move into my own apartment and stop paying both a steep mortgage and a steeper rent !

I was quickly re-assured though that the November deadline is keeping into accounts all the variables and is really a maximum time limit. Also was assured that WBIDFC the developers will keep their promise of paying a penalty of Rs. 4000 per month, for each month of delay !  However this money will not be paid in cash at this time, it will be adjusted against outstanding dues one may have at the time of closing/possession.  

Developers all across New Town and elsewhere too are notorious for flashing the Force majeure clause and hiding under it's protection. Thus evading having to pay penalty to hapless investors. I have been repeatedly reassure that WBIDFC is not just another developer, they are a government company and will be stand by their commitment. Well, time will tell !

Mr. G unlike during my previous meetings with him, looked somewhat hassled and flustered. I was told he was in-between either a meeting and/or some audit process. He quickly dropped the November bombshell and went back to his lair. 

Now almost as if telepathically I receive an email from another investor at Sankalpa, Site II, which was to be delivered in August this year. Below is an excerpt from his email, verbatim :

*****************
Hello All,
I was told recently by the Sankalpa office personnel at Salt Lake that the delivery will be in March/April, 2011. The official delivery date was August this year and after the 3 months grace period, they will be paying us penalty (per month) which will be adjusted during closing.  

***************** 

I would like to conclude here by simply saying - जागो ग्राहक जागो ,  জাগো গ্রাহক জাগো  or as they say in the American twang - Wake up and smell the coffee !

The age old adage could not be truer in this context - United we stand, divided we fall !

Shukhobrishti Handover Ceremony

The West Bengal government and HIDCO are making every effort possible to give New Town an image makeover. They are trying every arrow in their quiver to hit the target. In the same vein an elaborate arrangement had been done for a ceremonial hand over of 1500 apartments at Shukhobrishti the mass housing project in Action Area III.

SP Shukhobrishti is one of a kind mass housing project which by the end of it will have 20,000 dwelling units and by that effect about 100,000 people living under it's shelter.

The entire political glitterati were to be present at this symbolic event where a chosen few would get the keys to their dream home personally by the esteemed guests.  To bring into focus the corporate - state partnership, they even decided to fly down the SP, CEO of Shapoorji Pallonji's real estate ventures - Kekoo Colah, a very well spoken individual.

Despite the housing minister - Gautam Deb's multiple offers to the Ms. Mamata B., some even bordering on insanity; to which she never did warm up. Ms. Big B has this unflinching faith in her abilities, her unwavering philosophy and her continued stance of non-cooperation which could even do a Mahatma Gandhi proud !

All road this on this rainy afternoon led to Shukhobrishti, as you can see in the pictures below ...

Tailgating a police jeep ...

Dark clouds over New Town, quite literally so !

Welcoming Shapoorji Pallonji ...

Bridge on the river kwai ...

गाय हमारी माता है, हमको कुछ नहीं आता है :)

The last stretch of the short drive to Shukhobrishti, is rather rocky and puts the suspension of your car to some test. The SP site wore a festive look ready to welcome the HIDCO and political big wigs.The main entrance was decorated with cloth pillars and banners, a huge tent had been put up, a couple of hundred red plastic chairs were thrown in. And you think the color of the chairs was a mere coincidence, think again my friend. Red is THE color even if for only a few months more ;-)

Rows of red chairs ...

Guests pouring in ...

The Shukhobrishti buildings in the background ...

We walked in through a makeshift metal detector frame (sorry no pictures of that) and took couple of seats and made ourselves comfortable. We were welcome by a Rabindrasangeet singer. The extra loud Peavey speakers (Designed in USA - What about down with imperialism ? Changing face of communism ? May be so !) . The loud speakers were making sure, the songs were heard even a few miles down the road.

The clock struck four and the countdown started to the CM's arrival. The Rabindrasangeet singer picked up pace. Buddha babu showed up bang on time, lead by a North Patrol Car 1.  Along with him came the rest of the babus and sahebs - Gautam Deb Babu, Abdur Razzak Mollah Saheb, Abdus Sattar Saheb, Rabindranath Mondal Babu, Saurabh Kumar Das, MD, HIDCO and last but not the least the corporate face of event Mr. Kekoo Colah.

The stage was set for the dignitaries with high back chairs  and tables covered with spotless white sheets, neatly lined awaited their hosts.

I have to admit, I was impressed by the clock work precision with which the events unfolded. The CM drove in his chariot of white ambassador cars. A lady from the TV circuit, whose name I do not know, was the compere for  the afternoon. She spoke both English and Bengali with equal elan. She introduced the eminent guests. The Rabindrasangeet singer was done for the day and was NOT even introduced to the audience. It was now the turn of the HIDCO officials and the politicians to sing their song, and so they did.

First to take the stage was Saurabh Das, Managing Director, HIDCO. Mr. Das spoke in an accent very uncharacteristic of Kolkata and/or Bengal. He spoke about the philosophy of New Town, the ethos behind it. He positioned SP Shukhobrishti as a New Town landmark similar to Great Indian Mall in Ghaziabad (I think he misspoke here though, this should be Noida),  Ansals Plaza in Greater Noida and few other examples. His speech was a smattering of Hindi, English, Bengali and some buzzwords like mass housing, malls, fly overs, philosophy, ethos and such ...

Then came, Robindronath Mondol; M.L.A - who spoke like a politician,  Mr. Kekoo Coolah- suave, well meaning, smooth talking corporate citizen who did highlight the fact even if very politely, that HIDCO and the government do need to step up the ante and speed up the development process in New Town to make the place truly liveable,  Abdur Rezzak Mollah was the Mr. 'Smarty Pants', kept his speech short and sweet, made a jab at Ms. B, succinctly though, Abdus Sattar again spoke like a politician, the housing minister Gautam Deb started slow, but made an aggressive comeback and turned fire brand, started with New Town and how the political opposition is killing it, and ended by playing to the galleries by playing the Hindu vs. Muslim card. Lastly came the CM. It was starting to get dark and the audience which mainly comprised of the construction workers from the area was starting to get restless and tired of clapping at intervals.

We guessed that waiting till the end of CM's speech might not be a great idea as there is going to be a mass exodus of nearly a 1000 people, which would clog the exits and the roads out of the venue. The CM was not going to be revealing anything earth shattering anyhow, he would have reiterated pretty much the same talking points that were made by all the speakers before him. Clearly from TRP standpoint, they should have let the CM speak earlier, but what do I know ?

Following are some videos I captured at the event (please excuse the grainy quality and lack of close ups of speakers, due to not being seated at a vantage point, however the very crisp and clear audio makes up for it to a certain extent).

SP Shukhobrishti - Ceremonial Handover - Introduction

Kekoo Colah, CEO Shapoorji Pallonji - Real Estate



Saurabh Kumar Das, MD, HIDCO

SaveNewTown scores a half-century on IndiBlogger !

Thank you, readers. This encourages me to keep reporting. 

 

Hiland Willows Explored !

Hiland Willows sits at the end of the road, preceded by Bengal DCL's Malancha, Bengal Shelter's Teen Kanya, Peerless's Anahita and Sunrise Symphony by the Bengal Sureka group (in this order).

All these projects are in Action Area II of New Town, and were all effected first by the slow down in the economy, later by the slow moving brain of the TMC Supremo the unchallenged, the one and only 'মহা ' Didi (The great sister). Some call her 'মহা ' Debi (The great Goddess).

The only silver lining on the cloud is that Hiland Willows in particular has been really sweetening the deal for people willing to buy an apartment at their project. Their tag-line has been for a while now - 'Get premium, semi-furnished, air-conditioned apartments at unbelievable prices'. So I guess one can say that Didi does have a positive effect on the economy, she has been able to drag the prices down, of these otherwise steeply priced projects.

But then, let us get serious. We surely hope that come 2011, and Didi has her throne, and throws a few bones towards her henchmen. Isn't that's what this is all about - 'Live and Let Live'. Let us pray, that some of  these projects could prosper, so an otherwise ghost town can get inhabited. I think I am now done with my daily prescription of sarcasm for our future CM. Moving on.

Visited Hiland Willows earlier today and found the security and support staff to be very forthcoming in showing us their sample flats. 2 thumbs up for Hiland Willows management on being customer friendly and delivering what so far seems to be a quality product.

* They are using a different kind of brick for this project, it is called fly ash brick, which is different from the red bricks made in a brick kiln. And is said to have pros and cons. Click on the link above to know more about Fly Ash Bricks.

At this point I will stop talking and let the pictures do the rest of it.

We were shown 2 sample flats, this one is - Cypress Premium (just over 2000 sq. ft.).

And now Cypress Standard (Approximately 1900 sq. ft.)

Home Front, 2010

Saturday newspapers shouted from the roof-top, about Home Front 2010, at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. Previously known for concerts like Hope 86, and shooting of the Big B blockbuster Yaarana. 

CREDAI - Bengal the West Bengal chapter of the apex body of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India  arrange a real estate road show once a year, every year.

A property fair such as this gives an ideal platform to the buyers, realtors, the marketing companies, and the home loan financiers to mingle. The admittance is reasonably priced at just Rs. 20.  Once inside the stadium arena you will witness the who's who of the real estate players. It was moderately crowded for a Saturday afternoon.

WTF ? Excuse my French.

The above signage with the fountain as the backdrop, was strategically placed at the entrance, suggested an antithesis of  sorts. Our respected Mayor, his highness Sovan Chatterjee was entrusted with the job of cutting the ribbon at this prestigious event. I hope to God the Mayor had Didi's blessing and approval to do this. The poor man has a new job and has a family to feed ;-) After all this was a showcase event for any and all real estate development in and around Kolkata. Including Rajarhat, New Town where Didi and her Didigiri enjoys a stronghold, and has been very successful in delaying if not complete stoppage of infrastructural development. Can this be construed as a softening of her stance or will Rajarhat continue to be her 'Bête Noire' ? Your guess is as good as mine. Moving on then.

Fair Overview

Kid Friendly Fair

A happy family turnstile @ the Urbana booth

Urbana's vision of tomorrow, too good to be true and unreal !

Touch Screen, Self Help Kiosks for Customers @ Pioneer's booth

If I were to guess, there were probably close to a 100 booths/stalls. Most of them were busy pitching their product to the visitors. The young and vibrant marketing executives were busy explaining how their product was the best on the market. They were selling dreams. Different modes of advertisement were at work from LCD displays looping through a/v presentations, to touch-screen, self help kiosks, to free Nano, to immediate discounts for spot booking. I can only imagine how the marketing wheels must have worked feverishly to come up with a plan for oneupmanship over the past few days to get that USP (Unique Selling Point), to be visible in a crowd.

Picture taken on 26th August, 2010

It is noteworthy to add that I chatted  up with a young exec named Nitin from the Pioneer booth. He was looking after Rajarhat/New Town projects being marketed by Pioneer. I almost grilled him, asking him some uncomfortable questions regarding projects such as Rosedale, which was very aggressively marketed by this firm back in 2006. His response was stereotypical apropos political situation, infrastructural road blocks. I did not mention this blog, but I did drop a hint that I follow New Town close enough to know what goes around in town. I was fishing for any more information over and above what we already know.  I told him during my recent visits to Rosedale NRI project, I was quite disappointed to see that there did not seem to be much activity going on, at the site. A project that is over 6-9 months delayed, should seem busy to say the least. On the contrary the scene at the construction site looks abysmally slow and the progress is lethargic. To this Nitin replied that work was surely underway and they are looking at handing over the ready units within about a year's time. I contradicted Nitin and argued that at this rate, even two year looks far fetched, leave alone a year. I certainly hope I am wrong and they deliver in a year from now. He also added that all projects in that zone including Uniworld City are hit badly due to the stiff opposition in laying sewer lines and erecting electric poles.

Where are you Didi, are you listening ? Your man Friday, your appointee Mr. 'Jol' Sovan Chatterjee is cutting ribbons, while you are busy cutting/shredding people's dreams into pieces !

I did mention to him that in my humble opinion, it does seem that the builders are using the infrastructural row to their advantage, and taking it easy on delivering a finish product. The interior finishing of the building has nothing to do with the infrastructural issues that are hurting New Town.

Hi-Land / Calcutta Riverside

Free Nano - Yeah Right !

 Now I am going to talk a little about two different projects that caught my attention and sounded somewhat interesting amidst the maze of high rises. A concept of second home is a novel one, for people who can afford to own more than one property.

One such project is called - আমার বাড়ি (My House). It is being developed by Bengal Greenfield Housing Development Co. Ltd. The same people behind Greenfield Heights, Greenfield  Ambition both in New Town. 

A Village Villa

What draws me to the this project: a. Heritage location - Santiniketan b. Own Bungalow c. Village styled villa d. Affordable pricing, starting at Rs. 11 Lacs, and going upto 21 Lacs. It will be difficult getting an apartment these days in the City of Joy at that price.

There are about 151 bungalows in all, and I think the customer executive from MMG (the company marketing this project) said that they have about 60 odd bungalows still available, which will be released in 2 subsequent phases. I don't have the money for this now, unless a wealthy reader of this blog is willing to make me a Pujo/Diwali or Christmas gift :)) I would still however be visiting Santiniketan and this project in short order. I am looking forward to it.

Next, this one is closer to the city and uses a term that I have heard for the first time in real estate retail. They call is plug and play apartments, that's an innovative adjective for a fully furnished apartment. Once again it this project is trying to cash in a growing segment of second home buyers. This one is called - Nirvana - studio apartments(552 sq. ft  studio/ 977 sq. ft. duplex apartments); supposedly 40 mins. from Alipore in a settlement called আমতলা - a town that sits on the Diamond Harbor Road, about 25 kms from Esplanade - the city center of Kolkata. So were now in the age of Plug-
and-Play Nirvana, huh ?

Enough said. It was an afternoon well spent and hopefully, some information in here could be useful to readers of this space.

Thanks and Cheers !

Good night and Good luck !

Sankalpa - Purposeful Unity

First of all I apologize to the readers of this blog for going amiss for the last two weeks. My work and some personal commitments had the better of me. But I am now back in action and you will hear more from me about other projects in New Town.

Now then, I would start off by borrowing a line from Swami Vivekananda's Chicago address:

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Sankalpa,

Time has come that we get together in the interest of the investment we have made in Sankalpa. As we know that there are four sites within the project - Site I, II, III and IV. Site I has barely taken off and was launched the last, so that might be outside our scope of present discussion.

Regarding Site II, III, IV - I have been following up on the construction progress closely, have been posting pictures and videos on a fairly regular basis. My last visit to Sankalpa was about 2 weeks back. I will be visiting the site at least every 4 weeks and hope to see reasonable progress during that time frame, since my last visit.

However we need to form a forum of flat owners at Sankalpa (across all the sites) and get together, so that we can take up various agenda with the developers. A reader of this blog, and a flat owner himself - Cdr. Ghatak seconds this opinion and suggests that it would be good start if at least some of us (let's pick a number, say 6 of us) who are locally based out of Calcutta can form a group, and meet in person and discuss issues concerning us.

A collective and purposeful unity will give us leverage with the developers. It is obvious that the possession of apartments, will be seemingly delayed. One such item on our agenda could be to make sure that the penalty clause be exercised, and we are financially compensated for the delay. In my previous casual meetings with the chief engineer I was told that the penalty clause, will most definitely be adhered to. We need to see that it actually is.

As allottees to this project, and future owners of our individual apartments - there could be a number of things that concern us, which need to be flagged, raised and discussed at this stage.

At this point I will humbly request all the readers of this blog, who are either themselves investors at Sankalpa or know someone who is, to simply drop in an email to : savenewtown@gmail.com, with a subject line of - "Sankalpa Flat Owners Forum". Please introduce yourselves in the email, with your contact information and preferred mode of communication: Mobile, Email, etc.

You are welcome to send us an email, even if you are not residing in Calcutta. However at this point we are looking for people who are located in Calcutta, so that we can meet in person.

Sankalpa - A view from the top

Site III & Site IV - Towers

Yesterday, we (myself and a co-blogger - who wishes to remain anonymous). For ease of reference we will call him Z.

So upon some insistence from Z and a desire to see the view from the top, we climbed all the way to the 13th floor of Tower 8, Site II of Sankalpa and boy was I not glad I did. It looks like a completely different world from up there.

It wasn't a particularly breezy day, but there was a pleasant breeze cutting across in the south easterly direction.


Tower 8 in Site II is a G+13 structure, the top 2 floors are pent houses with liberal floor plans for the people who can afford it. The pent houses feature wide balconies ideal for small open air BBQ parties. I realize I really need to befriend at least one of the people who own one or more of these pent houses. And if you are reading this blog and happen to own one of these pent houses, go on show me some love for providing you with the lovely pictures and the video !

Tower 8 in Site III was the focus of my visit to Sankalpa this time. It seems to be well on track. I will be visiting Sankalpa office today to find out what is their delivery schedule on Site II, Site III and Site IV. Will share the information as soon as I have it.

You may also visit the official website for Sankalp.

With that being said, I will let you enjoy the pictures in 2 different slide shows !

And here is the video ...








And now the walk through of Flat Type A in Tower 8, Site II