72 hours and counting: No power at Worli SRA

MUMBAI: Residents of seven SRA buildings of Omkar 1973 project in Worli have been struggling to get through their lives, after Bombay Suburban Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) snapped the power supply to elevators installed in the 23-storey towers three days ago.

The lack of electricity also impacted households’ water supply – they had to physically climb up and down to get their fill. The elderly had no option but to stay cooped up inside their homes; some families relocated as a stop-gap measure.

“I was forced to take my family to my brother’s house in Sion yesterday as there was no water for our daily ablutions. We bathed today and brought food for my elderly father,” said Arun Kumar Tiwari, a fifth-floor resident of D wing of Mahalaxmi SRA co-operative housing society, a cluster of seven 23-storey towers lining up next to Omkar 1973.

Residents of the SRA project, one of the five largest clusters delivered by Omkar Realtors and Developers with 1,621 slum dwellers, got possession through the lottery system between 2014 to 2017. However, according to Tiwari, residents had been facing the issue of unpaid accumulated power, water and property tax bills.

BEST had served the first notice for outstanding electricity dues for lifts and water pumps on December 7, 2023, on the SRA society demanding a total sum of ₹84.99 lakh. The amount increased to ₹95.23 lakh, as mentioned in the second notice served to the society on January 29, 2024.

Out of the seven wings of the Mahalaxmi SRA CHS, which collectively owed ₹95.23 lakh, the outstanding dues of E wing stood at ₹35.28 lakh, C wing at ₹28.66 lakh, F wing at ₹11.88 lakh, the notice said. The rest of the amounts were lower than ₹6 lakh.

The notice said, the electricity was discontinued on December 15 due to unpaid dues and was restarted on December 22 on humanitarian grounds. A BEST superintendent said residents gave an assurance that the dues would be paid, which was not honoured. The notice also underscored that Omkar Realtors and Developers had washed its hands off the matter. BEST said if the dues were not paid within the next five days, the power supply would be discontinued.

Advocate Anita Pandey, who resides in D wing, said, “The developer was supposed to rehabilitate the residents in nine buildings, but only seven have been built. The project has not been completed, and so Occupancy Certificate has not been obtained. The developer was paying these dues till 2022. When power was cut off the last time, the developer paid up. The elected body in the society has been dissolved and the corpus deposited by the developer is lying with SRA, hence we are not able to use it to pay these dues.”

Pandey said residents filed a petition before the Bombay high court last year regarding the recurring problem of outstanding dues. “Since a petition is pending before the courts, we requested BEST on humanitarian grounds to continue the supply and impose a penalty on outstanding dues later. School going children have to suffer when their exams will begin soon. There are pregnant women and senior citizens who cannot move out of the building when the lifts are in-operational,”

An Omkar spokesperson said, “We handed over the possession of these buildings between 2014 to 2017, as per the lottery allocated by SRA. As per SRA norms, the developer has to deposit a corpus of ₹20,000 per tenement with the authority and its interest is expected to take care of the maintenance for 10 years. We have complied with that. After handing over, the developer has to pay the annual maintenance charges (AMC) of the lift and the fire safety contract, which we are doing.”

The spokesperson said the developer had also conducted workshops with the residents to explain how a society should function. However, the society’s elected body was dissolved due to improper functioning, and SRA appointed Anand Patil as an administrator in August 2023. “I tried to organise a general body meeting so that members can take a decision and formally seek the corpus funds lying with the SRA, but I failed to get them together,” Patil said.

On Wednesday evening, the residents, led by former Sena corporator Samadhan Sarvankar, sought the help of guardian minister Deepak Kesarkar on whose orders the BEST restarted the power supply around 6 pm.

Sarvankar said, “The society is yet to be handed over by builder and dues have to be paid by Omkar developers. Our demand is not just payment of BMC’s bills, but its assessment bills of more than ₹7 crore and water charges of ₹2 crore.” He said that the builder “is fooling all government organisations and the government should stop the sale of his buildings till he clears all the dues”.