Visit to site : 26 Oct 2010

I visited the site yesterday. Here are some updates :

a. All towers 1 to 6 are being offered possession. 2 families have already started living in towers 3 - 4 now, interior work of many apartments is going on. I checked out some apartments where the interior work was being done - i think many more families can move in within a month's time.

b. I walked around the towers 1 - 6 area, it looks pretty much complete. The swimming pool and gym will be operational in another 2 months. They were installing the AC's for the gym yesterday. The club house is on the roof of towers 3 - 4 but can be accessed from any of towers 1 - 6's roofs, it might take 2 - 3 months to complete. 

c. Towers 7,8 and 9 are still far away from being ready. I went up tower 9 to a few floors, the lifts are not installed, firefighting equipment is partially installed and some flooring work is still pending. I think it will be Jan or Feb before these towers become livable. 

d. There is a second swimming pool and smaller gym in between towers 7, 8 and 9. 

e. They have started growing grass in the 20 acre central park now. From tower 9, I could see that a lot of it has been cleared up and is starting to become green. It might not become accessible soon but at least it's not an eyesore and there won't be a lot of dust. 

f. I discussed the boundary wall around towers 7,8 and 9. It will remain forever but access through the wall will be provided to the central park. It think that's ok and the wall should remain - at least till the construction is all over (will take at least 5 years) - for security reasons. After that, it will be the RWA's decision on what to do with it. 

g. The Raheja mall opp CP2 has also started opening up. There's a Subway functional, there a departmental store - SRS Value Bazaar and an LG showroom coming up already. 

Overall, my feeling is it would be made a great place to live in once its ready and teething issues resolved. My mid 2011, it would look like a regular occupied residential complex. And by the way, the rain damaged Sohna Road is finally under repair. 

Visit to the site

I was allowed to enter the site and towers of Phase 1 on 21st Aug 2010. Here is what I saw :

1. Towers 1 to 6 are almost complete. The apartments need to be cleaned and handed over, most of the other work is done. The entrance of the building has a large lobby which is nice. Iron grills for all open spaces are in place, the walkway leading to the entrance has stone and wooden linings, each tower number is clearly marked on a large black granite stone outside the building.

2. Towers 7, 8 and 9 are incomplete, both externally and internally. Tiles are not yet in place, flooring and bathroom fittings haven't been placed. Paintwork is pending and all the external work is also pending. It will be at least 2 -3 months before towers 7,8 and 9 reach the stage where towers 1 - 6 is today.

3. There is NO clubhouse anywhere. There is a structure near the swimming pool for towers 1 to 6 that looks like the changing room, besides that, there is no structure where the clubhouse could be!

4. Between towers 7,8 and 9, there is another swimming pool. There is also a large cemented ring - which looks like either a skating rink or tennis court (cemented?)

5. Inside the apartment - this is interesting - the C type apartments have a really large study. The master bedroom also has a nice area for walk-in closet. The study is small in the A & B type apartments.

6. The quality of most of the fittings used is very very poor. The main door lock - for example- is so light and of poor quality that a hard push could open the door. The tiles - specially in the bathroom -is of ugly color and cheap quality. All the taps - though of Jaguar brand - and very small and looks fake. The commodes and washbasin are small - and white. The bathtub in A & B type apartments are too small, it's decent sized  in C type apartments.  The electrical switches are also of some cheap make.  I suppose a lot of investments will have to be made to do up the apartment if one expects to live in it.

7. Overall, compared to other apartments in Gurgaon, the layout is nice. In terms of actual size, the 2350 Sq Ft apartment is almost of the same size as the 1890 Sq Ft apartments in Central Park 1.  The actual floor area looks about 1600 - 1700 Sq Ft - not more.   The ground floor apartments - which were supposed to be used for common purposes earlier - have been sold by CP2, so the super builtup area should have come down but it hasn't.

8. The bedroom sizes are small - and there is no place for built-in cabinets. The wooden floor is the cheapest quality laminate flooring of an ugly orangish color.

9. The biggest worry. There is a boundary wall segregating towers 1 to 6 from 7,8 and 9. There is another boundary wall segregating towers 7,8 and 9 from the rest of the project. All together, these towers cannot access the "Central Vista" where the large parks and jogging track will be unless these walls are removed. The entrance and exit gates for Phase 1 is separate from the entrance gate for the rest of the project.   If the boundary wall looked like a temporary structure, I would have thought that it was temporary till the rest of construction continued but from the looks of it, it seems like a very permanent structure.

10. One nice thing, the entrance to Raheja Mall is exactly on the opp side of the road. Though the mall is vacant now (except for a Subway that opened last week), it will be very convenient to just walk across to the mall for daily needs.

I'm making the google group - http://groups.google.com/group/centralpark2 the official place for residents to discuss.  Once you sign up, the email for the group is  centralpark2@googlegroups.com  to which you send send mails to discuss anything.

New updates - August 2010

Some updates :

1. For phase 1, Escalation fixed at Rs. 320 per sq ft
2. Club membership - Rs. 1 Lakh
3. Penalty for delay being given only for 4 months
4. No clubhouse building - parts of club is spread out within the apartment complex. Also means no community hall !
5. Possession started for towers 3-4 only
6. Belfort is a name of new towers sold in the CP2 complex - not even updated on the official company website. 1 and 2 BR studio apartments in this tower - completely sold out!

Phase 1 still stuck, Phase 2 shows progress

These pictures were updated on 22nd May 2010. Phase 1 is still stuck, towers 1 to 6 have been painted from the front side but not in the rear. Towers 7, 8 and 9 are as they were.  It's only in Phase 2 that you can see some floors coming up.

No progress updates after February

The last official updates done on centralpark.in was in Feb 2010. Here are the pictures for phase 1 and 2.

Phase 1 delivery to begin soon

Delivery of Phase 1 apartments will start from about 15th May 2010 onwards. Its is expected that towers 3 & 4 will be the first to be handed over.

Now here starts the problems. As per the builder agreement, the penalty clause is restricted to 4 months of penalty only !! All those hoping to get money from the builder for delayed possession of over 16 months can go take a walk !!

Also, escalation will be imposed. Though no separate club building is being offered, you have to pay club membership charges.

Updated on 23 Nov 09 - very little work done

CP2 website was updated on 23 Nov 2009 and they slyly posted pics saying they are of 1 Nov.

The progress in phase 1 remains slow for towers 1 to 6, you can see there is no diff between images posted in Sept and Nov.

There is little or no progress in phase 2. Something seems to be wrong

Updated on Sept 2009 - progress in phase 2

Central Park finally updated the website after 2 months on 23rd Sept 2009 with latest pictures. There has been some progress in CPII - Phase 2. Phase 1 continues to be delayed. Here are the pictures

Faster construction in Phase 2

It is evident that Phase 2 construction is happening much faster that phase 1 construction in CP2. Today's update on the CP2 website shows this. Here are the pictures for July 2009 status :

Construction Update : July 2009

CP2 updated the work-in-progress pictures on their website today - 6th July 2009. Sloppy update, one picture say June 2009 and the other is till at May2009. There was no other update between 18 May till 6 July. There seems to be some progress in both phase 1 and phase 2 in some towers. However, the phase 1 progress in construction of the structure in only in towers 7, 8 and 9.

The pics are here :

http://centralpark.in/central-park-bellevue-p1-wip.asp

http://centralpark.in/central-park-belgravia-p2-wip.asp