Noida: Only five people turned up as Greater Noida Authority last week tried to auction 90 flats at its housing project in Sector Omicron 1-A, with many flagging the Rs 74 lakh reserve price as too high for a decade-old project replete with seepage, cracks, peeling plaster, flaking chunks of concrete plaster and incomplete common area amenities.Launched in 2017, the nine 15-storey towers in the housing society have 1,320 flats. Authority earlier allotted 400 flats to CISF personnel deployed for Noida International Airport and 30 flats to NDRF’s 8th Battalion Regional Response Centre, among others. Currently, nearly 350 flats in the society are vacant. Authority had re-launched the scheme in Feb this year and subsequently extended the deadline in June due to poor response.On Sept 3, a total of 90 units, each with 83.4 square metres (sqm) carpet area and 104.7 sqm super area, were again put up for auction with a reserve price of Rs 73.2 lakh to Rs 74.3 lakh, depending on the floor. Once again, the response remained tepid, with just five people expressing interest. Officials said Authority will now offer the remaining units on a first-come, first-served basis.On Thursday, when TOI visited the society, it found large-scale seepage, corroded pipes and chipped concrete on balconies and walls. Garbage and construction debris lay piled up in the parking lots and in an area originally marked for a community centre. Parts of the basement had accumulated drain water.Nandini Singh, who bought a flat in the society for Rs 50 lakh two years ago, said residents had hoped that since Authority had developed the project, it would see better management than private developments. “However, we are very disappointed over the maintenance of the society,” she said. “There is a basement parking facility, but it remains deserted and waterlogged, and no one uses it. The parking area is locked with an iron grille. The society’s park is waterlogged with overgrown grass,” she said.RJ Kaushik, who bought two flats in the society about five years ago, said he was frustrated with the lack of maintenance and poor construction quality and sold his flats two years ago. “There was no regular sweeping in the society, and garbage and construction debris were strewn all around the complex. Authority had planned a club, gym and commercial shops in the society. It seems that they developed the building but forgot to put them to any use,” he said.Greater Noida Authority’s supervisor for the project Sri Prakash told TOI that NKG Infrastructure, which developed the project, was also responsible for its maintenance. “The society is not fully occupied. We hope once more people shift here, maintenance issues will also be addressed,” he said.
