Kolkata West International City 'on course' sans Unitech

Unitech has dissociated from the Salim Group and Universal Success Enterprises-promoted Kolkata West International City, a satellite township project off Kona Expressway.

Unitech was roped in from the latter part of 2007 as a strategic partner and was primarily responsible for the marketing of the project. Subsequently, the project was renamed Nirvana Township when Unitech was in the picture but has gone back to its orignal name, Kolkata West International City since the disassociation.

Officials close to the development stated that earlier Unitech was associated as part of the project in the marketing capacity but now that Salim Group had their own marketing team in place, there was no real need for marketing support from Unitech. Added to this is the fact that Unitech has its own projects in the city now.

The project which has been delayed by more than a year, delivered about 50 bungalows as Phase-I in June 2009. Project officials said that the project had been delayed due to pollution board clearance problems. They further added that the project was well on track as the first instalment of bungalows had been delivered. They said the Phase-I of the project consisting 750-800 bungalows would be completed by 2010.

Customers, however, have a different story to tell. They see the Unitech pull-out as the reason for the delay.

“The grace period for the delivery was six months from June 2008 and yet there are no signs of delivery even now. The compensation that is being paid is not enough given the fact that the 3.5 per cent interests being paid are nowhere close to the 9-11 per cent interest that we are having to pay the banks for homeloans,” said Abhay Upadhyay, a city-based businessman.

Project officials said that the project had been delayed due to West Bengal Pollution Control Board clearance problems. “The project being a township, requires some basic levels of infrastructure development and that has been our primary focus. We have started delivering the bungalows now and the first batch was delivered in June 2009. The rest of the project is well on track and we will be delivering on the set premises soon,” said a marketing official on condition of anonimity.

The customers have other points of concern as well. The project was supposed to include a school, a market place and a hospital. But many of these amenities are still missing from the project site although the the township is over 12 kms away from Vidyasagar Setu.

Around 80 per cent of the buyers have already paid 80 per cent of the money while 20 per cent of the buyers have made full payment. The project was considered to be one of the largest Foreign Direct Investments in township projects in India when it had been conceived in 2007.