Row over infra holds up Mayfield Garden transfer to MCG

Gurgaon: More than 15,000 residents of Mayfield Garden are struggling for basic civic amenities. The reason — they are caught in the tussle between the MCG and the developer over the transfer of the colony, which has been pending for five months now.
The government announced the transfer of nine private developer colonies to the civic body in 2019. While eight of these colonies have already been taken over, Mayfield Garden still remains with its developer.
The reason for the delay in the takeover of Mayfield Garden is the developer’s objections to the estimated cost that has to be paid to the MCG for the colony’s incomplete infrastructure. As per the MCG’s estimate, the cost for fixing the colony’s civic deficiencies is Rs 16.37 crore. However, the developer has pegged the same at Rs. 5.50 crore.
While both the MCG and the developer are blaming each other for the delay in the transfer of the colony, the residents are facing a lot of hardship due to lack of maintenance and deteriorating civic infrastructure. Spread across 327 acres in sectors 47,50,51,52 and 57, the township was developed two decades ago. According to the residents, the civic infrastructure in the colony has been crumbling with broken roads, clogged sewer lines and damaged water pipelines.
Dharam Vir Yadav, a resident of N Block, said, “The condition of the colony is deteriorating by the day as no proper maintenance has been done by the developer since 2012. Now, we have even stopped paying the maintenance which is adding to our woes.”
MCG officials said that the civic body is trying to complete the process of takeover of Mayfield Garden at the earliest.
“The deficiency in the colony has been assessed through a proper survey and the developer must have given its feedback. Now, it seems to be trying to make excuses to transfer the colony. Anyway, we are making all efforts to complete the takeover process at the earliest,” an MCG official said.
In fact, the developer has already filed an application for review of the detailed project report (DPR) to the director general of the town and country planning department in Chandigarh. Ajay Shokeen, assistant general manager (marketing) of Mayfield projects, said, “Our only objection is the deficiency cost which they have estimated to be around Rs 16.37 crore, which is inaccurate. As per our calculation, the work would cost around Rs 5.50 crore.”