Should I buy property from Dharitri Infraventure Pvt Ltd in Kolkata?

Before you decide on whether to buy a flat, bunglow  or plot with Dharitri Infraventure Private Limited, let us first get to know the company we're talking about, it's past record and reputation, it's completed projects, litigations and customer experiences. This will give us a broad understanding about the company and whether we can trust our hard-earned money with them or not.

DISCLAIMER : All the information that I'm about to share are based on my personal interaction and experience with Dharitri Infraventure and with the buyers/residents of Dharitri Royal Enclave and from various sources, govt websites across the web. These are strictly my views and I am not responsible for your decisions.

Let's start by checking the facts about Dharitri Infraventure Pvt Ltd. The company was incorporated in 19-03-2014. it's a 10 year+ old Private company with Mr. Vicky Singh and Ms. Dipanwita Samanta as it's directors. The registered address is Room No. 805, 8th Floor, Merlin Infinite Building, DN- 51, Sector-V, Salt Lake City , Kolkata - 700091.

Past Projects :  

Being in business for more than 10 years, one would expect the company to have numerous successful projects. Right ? 
I too thought so and went to their website https://www.dharitri-infra.com but there I could only see the names of three projects - Dharitri New Royal Enclave, Universia and Blissville.

A little doubtful,I asked about past projects to the officers of Dharitri Infraventure in their Royal Enclave site office. There I learnt that Universia project has been stopped, Blissville is yet to be launched and booking for New Royal Enclave is going on. They told me that apart from these three, Dharitri Infraventure has many many completed projects.

I immediately insisted on knowing the names of those "many many" projects. Taken aback by the spontaneity, Mr. Saikat Naha, Dharitri official, began looking here and there as if trying to remember the names. After much effort, he recalled a name which as per him was "Urbana" (Dharitri Urbana). I immediately asked the location and again he was stumped, asking his colleague to help him.

Factcheck -->  The Fact is that Dharitri Infraventure Pvt Ltd. since 2016 has started more than 10 projects. Wonderful ! Isn't it ? 

• Dharitri Urban, Newtown -->  Expected possession date : Dec 2018
• Dharitri My Town, Baruipur -->  Expected possession date : June 2019
• Dharitri My Town Plots, Baruipur --> Expected possession date : Sept, 2021
• Dharitri Titanium, Madhyamgram --> Expected possession date : June 2020
• Dharitri Ultra City, Hatisala --> Expected possession date : Nov 2021
• Dharitri Web City, Pailan -->  Expected possession date : Dec 2021
• Dharitri Icon, Newtown --> Expected possession date : Dec, 2021
• Dharitri Universia, Hatisala --> Expected possession date : Sep 2022
• Dharitri Royal Enclave --> Ongoing 
• Dharitri Blissville --> Not yet started

Question : But then, WHY are these past projects not mentioned on the website? Why would the company not want it's customers to know the good work they've done through these years and why their office staff doesn't know the names ?

Answer : Because though Dharitri Infraventure Pvt Ltd has started so many projects NONE  OF THESE HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. Putting them on the website would raise more questions which obviously would make them uncomfortable.

Litigations / court cases : The booking amount trap

Since 2016, Dharitri Infraventure has been launching projects and luring customers by showing well planned townships and spacious floor plans and a promise to build a dream home and has been taking booking for flats, villas and plots. Since the property booked was under construction, the buyers patiently waited for Dharitri to start the construction as promised and complete the registry. 

Booking amounts to the tune of 10% - 40% of property price have been taken from unsuspecting, gullible clients. Some have signed an MoU, others have been given only money receipts.

Once substantial booking amounts were collected from a project, Dharitri would either close the project or shift it to another location - like they did with Dharitri Royal Enclave which was previously in Hatisala, relocated to Patharghata and renamed as Dharitri New Royal Enclave.

For most, people construction never started and when they approached Dharitri, they were ignored or given a cold response. Many were promised refunds which were never given.

The worst part is that projects were closed without intimation to any of it's buyers. Dharitri would then again start a new project somewhere else and a similar thing would happen again. This is what they have done in the last 8 years.

Ofcourse, some construction has happened and some people have got their homes but then that was only to lure more buyers into giving them the booking amounts.

The projects were abandoned and hundreds of people were left behind begging them to refund their hard-earned money.

Those who were able to get an order passed by court after 3-4 years got their money back with 8%-10% interest and Rs. 10000 - Rs. 15000 as compensation. The rest of the people are still fighting their battle.

Question : But, how do i know all this is true ? 

Answer : Don't believe me or anyone whom you don't know for that matter. Just go to google on your phone / laptop and search for "Dharitri Infraventure fraud" or "Dharitri Infraventure cases"
You will get a list showing numerous court and RERA cases registered against Dharitri Infraventure and their judgement or status. You will see how people who have paid booking amount or partial payment are struggling to get their money back after so many years.

RERA / HIRA registration : 

On Dharitri Infraventures's website, I could find  four RERA / HIRA registration numbers. So I went to the RERA website for West Bengal https://rera.wb.gov.in/ to check the staus of these projects.

HIRA Registristration no : HIRA/P/NOR/2019/000344
Project ID : NPR-00536
Project Name : Royal Enclave Phase-I
Registration Commencement date : 24/01/2019
Project completion date (as mentioned at the time of registration) : 31/12/2021
Extended completion date : 30/09/2022

Project Status : Under Construction
Completion Certificate : Not available

HIRA Registristration no : HIRA/P/NOR/2020/001017
Project ID : NPR-01150
Project Name : Royal Enclave Phase-I, Tower 4,5,6
Registration Commencement date : 09/10/2020
Project completion date (as mentioned at the time of registration) : 31/12/2024

Project Status : Under Construction
Completion Certificate : Not available

HIRA Registristration no : WBRERA/P/NOR/2024/001237
Project ID : NPR-000192
Project Name : Royal Enclave Tower 7,8
Registration Commencement date : 22/03/2024
Project completion date (as mentioned at the time of registration) : 31/12/2026

Project Status : Under Construction
Completion Certificate : Not Applicable

HIRA Registristration no : WBRERA/P/NOR/2024/002234
Project ID : NPR-002919
Project Name : Royal Enclave Tower 9
Registration Commencement date : 02/12/2024
Project completion date (as mentioned at the time of registration) : 28/12/2026

Project Status : Under Construction
Completion Certificate : Not Applicable

So, RERA registration has only been done for the Towers of Royal Enclave project (among so many projects undertaken by Dharitri). Among them also, two sub projects namely Phase-I and Phase-I, Tower 4,5,6 which were supposed to be completed by 2021 and 2024 respectively have not yet received a completion status / certificate or occupancy certificate.

Yes, you may see people living in those flats but completion as per plan is not yet done. 

Also, the Bunglows and plots that are being sold in Royal Enclave project are on 'Shali' land and hence RERA registration cannot be done, which puts the buyer into further risk of being cheated.

Who owns the land and is Dharitri authorized to sell it ? : 

Well, the answer to this question may be different for different projects but I will talk about Royal Enclave where my friend was trying to buy a plot of land. After seeing the plot physically, he requested Dharitri officials to send him the "Porcha" or ROR pertaining to his plot.

At first Dharitri asked him to pay Rs. 1 Lakh as booking amount. When he denied to pay any amount before verifying the land details, they finally agreed to send him the "Porcha" and draft agreement.

They sent him a "Porcha" of M/s Paramsukh Consultancy Private Limited updated as on 2022. Dharitri officials  told my friend that Paramsukh Consultancy owns 3.64 kathas land in dag no 158 as seen in the "Porcha". From there, Dharitri Infraventure would buy 2.5 Kathas and sell it to my friend. Everything seemed perfect till here.

I searched for the updated plot details on https://banglarbhumi.gov.in/ . This is government website which allows you to know about any property in West Bengal. I also searched government records for land transactions done on that particular plot.

Upon careful inspection, I found out that Paramsukh Consultancy was indeed the owner of 3.64 Katha land in 2022 but in 2023 it has sold it's property partly to Dimitra Realtors and partly to Dharitri Infraventure who in turn have sold it to their customers in 2023 itself. However, Mutation for the sold land was not yet done and the land records were still in the name of Paramsukh Consultancy.

So, is Dharitri trying to sell a property which was already sold before?

Interaction with Dharitri officials and their unofficial confirmation : 

When these questions were asked to Dharitri officials in Royal Enclave site office, they did not have any answer. To cover up things, Mr. Saikat Naha  told us that in a hurry, they must've done a mistake in writing the wrong dag no.
Next, when asked about so many closed projects, the Dhartri officer sitting beside Mr. Saikat Naha got visibly irritated. He angrily commented "Ke era je eto proshno jigesh korche ?" Who are they that they are asking so many questions? 

Clearly he did not like being asked questions about why the projects were closed or why there are so many court cases. Poor fellow was not expecting his potential customers to be literate enough to find out all this. He angrily exited the office.

He may have not liked our questions but we have surely got our answers. Furthermore, when Mr. Naha confirmed that "Shuru shuru te ektu gondogol koreche but ekhon theek ache" meaning that the company has done wrong things at the beginning but now everything is okay, we knew what we were doubting is correct.

Quality of constuction and service at Dharitri Royal Enclave

We met some people who are either staying or have bought a bungalow at Dharitri Royal Enclave.  One family who have got the possession of a bunglow confirmed that the construction is painstakingly slow. Many people have bought bunglows near his bunglow but no construction work is happening since months.

Next they confirmed that though they are staying in the bunglow, it has still not been converted to Bastu land. Also their drain lines are connected to a septic tank but still there is no connection with the main drain lines. 

Also as per them, the construction is not good and there was dampness in the walls within 3 months of completion.

The road leading to and around his bunglow have not been prepared and the mud lane gets very slippery when it rains.

Multiple Sellers in the same project

During my research I found out that the plots in the project Royal Enclave are not owned by Dharitri or any other single developer. They are mostly owned by the individual  farmers, many of w˙om have given Power of Attorney to local people who will sell their land on their behalf.

Dharitri has some kind of agreement with these PoA holders and farmers. When they receive a payment for a particular plot, they first buy it from the farmers and then sell it to the customer. Two seperate buy and sell agreements are registered one after the other maybe in 15-30 days interval. Again, there is nothing wrong with this.

The worrisome part is that Dharitri is not alone. There are other builders who are selling the plots to customers in the exact same way i.e by buying it first then selling within 30 days. These are not agents or brokers. They are the respective buyer and seller in the agreements and the name of Dharitri does not appear anywhere in those sale deeds. All those builders are operating in the same area and there are records of different builders buying land from the same plot and selling it to their customers.

So what ? you may ask.

So, my question is that since land is available for sale in those areas may builders are taking the advantage and upon finding a buyer is first buying and then selling the land to the end buyer and taking the sales proceeds.  The project may be Dharitri's but others are also selling land within the designated project area. So if there are many sellers who are selling and getting the benefits then which of them will take the pain to develop the common areas as mentioned in the project brochure.

Will Dharitri make ammenities, roads, lights etc in front of plots sold by Dimitra Realtors ? Are all of them going to join hands in a mega coalition ? Very unlikely.

The most shocking part is that there is no centralised database. Various agents and builders are showing land to prospective buyers and trying to close the deal by taking the booking amount. So it is highly possible that two or more people may be giving booking amount for the same plot.

That's it : And that's it... I have given enough details for you to decide on whether you want to buy from Dharitri Infraventure or not.

In case you do decide to buy a bunglow or plot with Dharitri or some other builder and would like some help, I would be delighted to help you. If you need to check the land records or sale agreements I can guide you to whatever extent i know.

I can be reached on phone : 8100486087 or Whatsapp : 7002116658 or on mail : protosh.pal@gmail.com

Stay Safe and take informed decisions.