Project scrapped after collecting money from investors in Gurgaon

A developer who had collected lakhs from investors for selling shops and office space in a proposed mall in Sector-66 Gurgaon has now scrapped the project claiming it was not viable.

While the website of the developer, Landmark, still says that the proposed mall is under construction, a senior official of the firm admitted that the project has been scrapped as it was not viable.

The commercial project named ‘Landmark The Mall‘ was launched six years ago and more than 50 people had invested in this project. After a long wait, the buyers visited the developer’s office demanding the developer to give back their investments. But the developer claimed that the investors would get their money back only by next January. Apart from this, the developer offered an option to the buyers as per which the investors can shift their investments to other projects of the developer.

The buyers alleged that the builder despite knowing long back that the project will not be completed, intentionally delayed it for long before fully scrapping it. They claimed that the builder had stopped taking their calls, due to which the buyers were forced to come to office. The buyers who have invested several lakhs each, are left with neither shop not money. And they expressed that they have lost trust in this builder and are least interested in investing further in any other projects of the firm. A buyer even alleged that shifting to other project means losing all the money.

Since the company is facing shortage of funds at present, the money would be refunded in January, said the general manager or Landmark, Devinder Pandey. The option of shifting to other mall projects has also been given to the investors, he added.

However, the buyers seem to be hesitant to shift their investments to any other project. While some investors had paid the whole sum of money for buying shop or office space in the project, others following construction-linked plan had made only partial payments.

It is also heard that the builder has announced launch of another project close to the mall site. Investors stressed that there is an immediate need for a system to monitor the developers and protect the interests of investors. The government has to soon come up with a proper measure to safeguard the real estate investments.