Ardee City, Gurgaon: Residents cry foul over electric bills
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Ardee City, Gurgaon: Residents cry foul over electric bills

Duped by the developer into shelling far more than required for power supply, irked residents lodge compliant at the chief minister’s office.

Ardee City, Gurgaon: Residents cry foul over electric bills

Residents of Ardee City, a society in Sector 52, Gurgaon, alleged that the developer has duped them of crores of rupees by overcharging them for electricity supply. The residents have filed a complaint at the chief minister’s office and are waiting for a reply.

According to the residents, the builder, Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited, had taken a power load of 5MVA when the required load was 15 MVA. The load was further divided among 2,500 houses – though it was officially meant for 1500 houses. As the society began consuming way more than the permissible capacity, the residents have had to pay higher per unit charge.

“We end up paying Rs 5.85 per unit instead of Rs 4.70, as the unit rate increases with consumption. The load when divided among lesser consumers results in higher slab rates. At times, we are paying as high as Rs 9 per unit,” said Bharat Rathore, a resident of Block C. The residents claim that they have brought the issue in the notice of several authorities, but failed to evoke any action. Besides overcharging, residents allege that the developer uses rotational power cuts to distribute the load across houses, causing enormous amount of difficulties for the home owners. “This is a classic case of tussle between the developer and residents over power supply in the city. Here, in many areas, supply is either controlled by the developer or the RWA,” explains Madhuparna Sen, another resident.

As it happens, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) supplies electricity to a single point supply connection in the township and charges the RWA or maintenance company for the bulk supply, instead of charging each household in the society.

When contacted by City Spidey, Sanjeev Chopra, superintending engineer of DHBVN, said, “We have met the residents a few times on the issue. We have told them that they must ask the developer to build a substation to meet the increased demand. If the developer refuses to comply, we can take strict action against the builder so that the residents do not have to suffer. We also can use the bank guarantee provided by the builder and build a substation.”