BENGALURU: A majority of nearly 2,000 buyers of houses and plots, looking forward to life in a classy residential plaza at ‘Ozone Urbana’ at Devanahalli find themselves in an unenviable situation now. Their earnings have been blocked for the last six years and there is no hope of houses being handed over to them in near future. The promoter has ignored multiple orders by the Karnataka-Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) to pay the compensation to the buyers.
The ambitious project by Ozone Urbana Infra Developers Pvt Ltd, planned on 185 acres at Kannamangala village, was to house many individual residential complexes with multiple towers, some even going up to 26 floors and numbered A to Z. The cost of the flats in 2012 ranged from Rs 40 lakh for a 1BHK studio to Rs 1.2 crore for a 3BHK apartment.
President of Ozone Urbana Buyers’ Welfare Association Errol Norohna told TNIE, “Apart from 1,800 apartments, we were promised a 5-star hotel, a 240-bed hospital and all modern amenities. Only 30% of the construction has been completed. Some houses which have been handed over do not have an Occupancy Certificate (OC) but at least 150 owners have chosen to stay in them.”
Noronha, who also heads the Association for the Recovery of RERA orders, alleged, “Many orders issued by RERA either to an individual owner or group of owners collectively have been ignored. Ozone Group has big projects across India. They carry out some construction work and then move on elsewhere leaving the buyers stranded.”
An army officer (name withheld on request) said, “This whole project now looks like a Ponzi Scheme. What really attracted us was the builder’s promise that the pre-EMI amount for the loan taken by us would be paid by them until the house is completed and handed over. I bought my property in July 2015 and was supposed to get possession by July 2018. The deadline was extended to 2019. The builder later told us the pre-EMI cannot be paid by him any longer. My entire savings is gone.”
Another aggrieved home buyer Manohar CR said, “I was supposed to get my 2 BHK flat by August 2017. I have paid more than Rs 70 lakh. Despite K-RERA ordering the builder in August 2022 to refund my money along with 9% interest since I was not given possession within 60 days, nothing has been paid to me. It has now gone to the Recovery Cell of the Revenue Department.”
Raju Sadhwani invested in two houses -- one in Pavillion and another in a senior retirement home, Irene. “RERA ordered a full refund of Rs 85 lakh for my house in Irene in January 2022 as there was no OC and registration done for it. I have not been compensated,” he said.
Ozone Group MD Vasudevan Satyamurthy did not respond to multiple calls and messages.