The Hindu Business Line : Maharashtra may repeal urban land ceiling Act

In the draft
Allotting 20% in new housing projects to low & middle-income groups.
Streamlining rules on building approvals to promote development.
Amendments to Rent Control Act.

S. Shanker

Mumbai, July 27 The Maharashtra Government draft housing policy tabled in the Assembly on Monday proposes the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULC) and amendments to the Rent Control Act. The draft policy will be taken up for discussion next week.

The policy also intends to streamline procedures relating to building approvals to promote housing and infrastructure development as also to establish a housing sector regulatory commission. To encourage investment in the housing segment the Government plans to offer incentives to developers such as no ceiling limit on land holding and a floating FSI (floor space index) in special townships (over 40 hectares outside municipal limits). Slum rehabilitation schemes will also be on a competitive tender basis.

The building fraternity appears to be by and large favourable to the initiative, while expressing concern over the allocation of a 20 per cent in all new housing projects for the low-income groups (LIG) and middle-income groups (MIG). This it considers as impracticable.

Real estate, slums

The Chairman of the Builders’ Association of India, Mumbai Centre, Mr Anant J. Gupta, said tendering of the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme would bring about a good result in removing the slums from the city in a time-bound programme.

Similarly, 100 per cent FDI will do miracle changes in real estate as seen in the other sectors where FDI was allowed. Scrapping of ULC and incentive FSI for townships would bring in new housing stock, which could result in ushering in price control.

However, there were apprehensions on the way the LIG and MIG have been drafted in the housing policy, as they seem very impracticable. The Government policy to encourage housing for them by giving an incentive FSI was welcome but it should be made separate town-wise and colony-wise.

No to clusters

Further, redevelopment of the old dilapidated buildings through a cluster system was not agreeable to the BAI as past experiences showed that no cluster-wise development had been successful.

The president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, Mr Mohan Deshmukh, felt the architect and builder fraternities should have been roped in for consultation to ensure a greater vision for a workable policy.

Similarly, the allocation proposed for LIG and MIG was not workable, though finer details were not available. “You cannot hope to sell a one-room kitchen flat on Napeansea Road. I am still to find a taker for such a flat in my project at Kalyan,” he said.

Welcoming the proposals on slum rehabilitation scheme and incentives for sustainable development, he said it was imperative that the ULC Act be repealed immediately.

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