Standing atop the terrace of a 13-storey tower in sector G7 in Narela – a vast expanse of seemingly endless rows of residential high-rises – a sense of desolation and melancholy is inescapable. In this 184-acre area, people are a rare sight. The silence is punctuated only by barking dogs or the occasional hum of passing vehicles and e-rickshaws from a nearby road.
To one side, a towering garbage mound looms over the complex, while the wind howls through the corridors of unoccupied towers. As the sun sets, the solitary lives of a few residents becomes glaringly visible with one or two isolated windows glowing with dim white light – a rare sign of habitation in the “ghost town”.
PT Selvam, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and the sole occupant of a tower in the F block, says he never ceases to get startled with the noises of footsteps echoing in the empty corridors.
“Drug addicts often roam these buildings at night, stealing pipes, wires, switches — anything they can find,” Selvam says. The vandalism has caused frequent disruptions to water and power supplies.
HT saw that the damaged boundary walls in the block were being rebuilt and a repair team was also busy adding wires. Selvam said that utility problems are consistent.
“You have to request utility personnel, and hope things get addressed… Three towers down from ours, a family moved in a few months ago, but they left within a month due to the vandalism. On 11th floor, a portion of a pipe has been stolen so water gushes like a waterfall,” said Selvam, who lives with his wife and a toddler daughter.
Unoccupied flats and fading promises
Pocket 5 of Sector G7/8, is a sprawling complex which spans 4.71 hectares, includes 4,291 low-income group (LIG) flats and 960 economically weaker section (EWS) flats constructed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
Pocket 5 of Sector G-7/8 is a sprawling complex. The board at the entrance reads: “Khushiyo ko mile thikana, apna bane ashiyana (Happiness gets a new address, a home becomes yours) – DDA housing scheme 2024”
Yet, a decade after their construction, HT could find only about half a dozen flats occupied.
The lack of takers is attributed to issues such as poor connectivity, security concerns, and the small size of the units.
Arun Joshi, an entrepreneur and the only resident in his tower, has installed three layers of iron gates for security.
“I’ve been here for two years. The building’s structure is fine, but fixtures are missing, and connectivity is a nightmare. It takes 1.5 hours to reach central Delhi,” he laments.
Even renting out these flats yields only ₹4,000- ₹5,000 per month, making them an unappealing investment, Joshi laments.
A security guard stationed at the entrance explains that the proximity of a massive garbage mound and a JJ (jhuggi-jhopri) colony has deterred prospective buyers. “People visit to see the flats, but almost always leave disappointed, even though the flats are being offered at a discount,” he says.
The section Selvam lives in, is the oldest in the project and the new blocks are still vacant.
Originally from Tamil Nadu, Selvam said that he moved to the rented flat in January 2023.
“My one-year-old daughter would be celebrating her birthday two days later but look at this place. We are now thinking to find a new place as this much price in this location. I don’t get night shifts on duty but as soon as any sound comes, we rush out with sticks. Usually, these are 3-4 young people. At one point, one guy even waved a katta at me,” he added.
After dusk, HT found that the entire campus had been covered in darkness. Some residents said that the lights in unoccupied flat towers are kept deliberately off to save them from addicts and vandals.
Selvam’s neighbour, Kashi Patel, lives with his wife and six-month-old baby in an adjacent tower.
Patel, a tenant living in the area from last one year, says that they regularly hear noises from nearby flats with addicts trying to remove the government property but they have never harmed residents.
“No garbage collection vans come. An e-rickshaw moves from nearby cluster as mode of transportation and people mostly stay indoors after dusk. Sometimes my wife gets afraid if I am late and I ask her to go out and remain in proximity of guards,” Patel who works in a printing venture in Bawana industrial area said.
Despite the frequent thefts and damages, Patel remains hopeful.
“Things will improve as more people move in,” he says, though his wife, Nisha, is less optimistic. “When I’m alone, I feel scared. The entire block is dark, with just one operational streetlight,” she says.
His wife Nisha is not as enthusiastic.
“When I live along, I get afraid during the night. The street light outside is operational but remaining block is dark. There are some CRPF personnel living in next tower and we seek help when needed,” she says.
Nisha jokes that in way she has the entire tower for herself. “There is park inside the complex so we don’t go out. Even when people from our friends or families come, they are initially shocked to see such a vast sub-city so empty. There are just six or seven families in entire complex.”
Living amid decay
The Patels and Selvams represent the only two families in their block. At night, the unoccupied flats are cloaked in darkness, with the only one sound audible – the water dripping from broken pipes.
In a makeshift attempt to address the issues, some residents have fashioned temporary water connections, bypassing damaged sections like a “surgical fix” for the complex’s crumbling infrastructure.
Even in the newer sections, such as Pocket 11, signs of structural wear and tear are already visible. Construction workers are busy patching up cracks in the walls, in a desperate attempt at preparing the flats for sale.
Babban Kale, a mason from a nearby JJ colony, explains, “We’ve been asked to repair all visible damage. Once people start living here, the maintenance will improve.”
DDA touts Narela as a “mega sub-city” modelled after Dwarka and Rohini. However, with over 50,000 flats built in the Narela-Bawana cluster since 2010, occupancy remains dismally low, estimated at just 15%, as of December 2023.
DDA has not commented on how many flats are currently sold, occupied and how much money has been spent on constant repairs and thefts, despite repeated texts and calls made to the authorities over at least the past fortnight.
A guard was present on the main entrance but signs of thefts are present in all towers.
All flats were lying open and one could easily enter unhindered. During night, echoes of water dripping in flats with missing pipes could be heard from far away.
A greenish glow of lift signs in the dark corridors could be seen in a few towers where a resident occupied flat on upper floors.
On paper, the complex boasts modern infrastructure on paper—EV charging stations, community centres, and waste treatment plants—but lacks the vibrant community it was designed to serve.
Driving through the sub-city reveals endless rows of the cardboard towers with no inhabitants around. It looks well-planned on the are with streetlights, road roads, green open spaces, and parks.
But the few people who live here say that the life is a daily struggle.
Connectivity is another problem.
The mass housing project is near Haryana in north-west Delhi just around 3km from the border but it took HT two hours eightminutes to reach the site from central Delhi via Karol Bagh, Pitampura, Rohini and Urban extension Road. The area is distant with poor bus and Metro connectivity however promises of a new metro line over the last decade have remained unfulfilled.
Selvam captures the sentiment shared by the handful of people there: “This place had potential, but at this price, in this location, who would choose to live here?”
