KOCHI:The 13-year-long wait is finally over. The 80-odd West Ford Gardens apartment owners realised their dream of a home when the keys of their apartments were handed over to them on Monday.
The property at Poonithura was left abandoned by the first builder, in 2006, following which the families bought in a new builder to complete the project.
The project, first taken up by the Southern Investments (SI Properties) Pvt Ltd, for building 84 flats was left halfway due to the financial constraints faced by the builder.The West Ford Gardens Crisis Association, formed to take up the project, raised the funds among themselves and brought in Abad Builders, who completed the pending works.
“The work almost hit a roadblock in 2010. Southern Investments had completed only 14 flats back then. But, they continued to give us false promises that the project would be finished soon. But, we sensed that things were going awry. Then, the owners formed an association West Ford Gardens Crisis Association and we raised around Rs 6 crore to complete the pending works,” said V Sathyanarayanan, a member of the association.
The association then approached Abad Builders Pvt Ltd to take up the pending works. The work resumed in February. Within six months, Abad Builders finished the works and handed over the keys to the owners.
Said Najeeb Zakaria, managing director, Abad Builders: “We have completed the works with promptness and in a much better way than the SI Properties had promised. We only took six months and the renovation works went well too.”