Structures stuck in legal limbo

KOCHI: Call it 'the ghost house of Kochi.' For Kochi's real estate boom and skyrocketing prices began from here. An abandoned plot and a 10-storeyed building with a slight slant to its left would never go unnoticed if you ever pass through the Kundannoor bridge at Maradu. Located across the backwaters next to Hotel Le Meridien, about 10 km away from the city, it would have been one of the first apartment complexes in Kochi.About 98 cents of land has been laying unused for the past 11 years after the building got entangled in some legal tussle, said the neighbours. "There's a mystery surrounding the property and the building. The property was bought by Jomon Builders in 1994 for the construction of an apartment complex. The apartments were priced at Rs 10-12 lakh each. Later, because of the slight slant, no one came forward to occupy the apartments. That's when they abandoned the project. Later it was taken over by the association of builders," said Boban, a Youth Congress leader in Maradu. Rumours were abuzz that the doomed builder, depressed by the sad fate and misfortune, committed suicide inside the apartment complex itself. However, the neighbours testify it as wrong. Recently, when the real estate boom began in Kochi, there were attempts to sell the land and a couple of land brokers came forward, too. However, maybe due to the legal implication, the sale didn't take off."The property is currently in the name of one James of Maradu, who bought the land along with his brother. It was then under the Maradu panchayat, which later became a municipality. The panchayat asked the owners to pay the building tax, which they refused. The matter went to court where the verdict favoured the panchayat. It has not been paid till now," said C E Vijayan, municipal councillor of Maradu.  He said that recently a person called Sharmaji from Vyttila came forward to buy the land. "He was ready to buy the property with all legal issues associated with it. However the sale didn't take place," he said.  Though the property has been abandoned for some time, the plots adjacent to it were sold like hotcakes. "A person called Thampy came here and bought the neighbouring plots for Rs 10 lakh a cent about two years ago. Now the property is worth Rs 20 crore," said Sunil Kumar, an autorickshaw driver who stays nearby.Usually an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city should have been the prime spot of anti-social activities. Interestingly, here it was just the opposite. It could be because of the 20-odd member nomadic group staying inside. When 'City Express' visited the building there were a group of nomads cooking food on the ground floor. "The police have permitted us to stay here after we produced our identity cards. So far there has not been any anti-social activities here," said 50-year-old Gauramma from Mysore who stays in the building with family.