Confessions of a Real Estate Builder

“Today, the land mafia has become very strong and is controlled by politicians. They will not hesitate to kill you. Personal security is a must”

One unsaid rule in a builder’s book is that you never use the word bribe. It is always ‘goodwill’. Both giver and the taker know what exactly it is. Every month, goodwill must be sent across to local politicians, policemen, some judges, civic body officials and others who matter. The biggies in these categories cannot be given goodwill in the form of cash. It is always in kind.

I remember the first time I was asked for a favour. A politician told me to provide a female companion to ensure that the agricultural land reservation on a huge tract be lifted and given non-agricultural status. I was not shocked, but I didn’t do it. I told him to take a sum of money instead. He agreed. The real estate and construction business is murky, but I follow some ground rules. Bribing in the form of money, foreign liquor, foreign trips and valuables is fine, but I will not stoop to the level of providing females.

If you are a builder, you cannot have peace of mind. You are constantly fighting. NGOs have become a big headache. When men run NGOs you can at least talk the language of goodwill with them. But women activists refuse to listen to reason. There is only a small percentage of women who are corrupt and it is difficult to spot that group.

Officials in the civic body and in Mantralaya, the seat of the Maharashtra government, expect a builder to pay goodwill even when everything is in order. If you don’t, they make it difficult to stay in business. However polished one is in the building industry, you have to get your hands dirty at some point. Today, the land mafia has become very strong and is controlled by politicians. They will not hesitate to kill you.

Personal security is a must. Your rivals are always trying to get the piece of land that you are eying, so there is bound to be confrontation. Land is getting scarce and competition has become murky. We have to start redeveloping old buildings if we have to stay in business.

Scarcity of land will be a major problem in future. Once it was being said that we built beyond demand. Now, the same people talk about scarcity of houses. We are constructing on the hills now. In some years, there will be no land left.

(He is a well known Pune-based builder, in the business for 29 years)

As told to Haima Deshpande

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