Developers have to wait for relief from Urban Land Ceiling Act
Developers hoping to get relief from the restrictions of Urban Land Ceiling Act by the Maharashtra state government will have to wait. The state government has sought legal opinion from the advocate general on the request made by seeking exemptions from ULC approvals since the law was repealed.
The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), body of real estate developers, and other developers have sought exemptions from seeking no-objection certificates from the state government while constructing on former ULC land, since the law had been repealed in 2007 with certain exemptions. MCHI had complained that this led to unnecessary delays. However, sources in the state government said that developers were keen on changing land use from industrial to residential and this could be problematic in a court of law. MCHI had also made a lot of other demands ranging from complaints against the environment appraisal committee set up by the ministry of environment and forests(MoEF) and the high-rise committee.
“The court has clearly taken a view that when the government made the exemption, it was in public interest. This cannot be bypassed for private profiteering,” said a senior official.
“We keep flagging this concerns and the government’s response is terribly slow. How can we create affordable housing in this context? Developers cannot put affordable houses in the market because our projects are stuck in red-tape. We are paying huge interest, that makes any reduction in cost unviable,” said a senior MCHI member.
Developers also voiced their anguish with the state government’s slow pace in clearing pending decisions like joint ventures with MHADA, cluster redevelopment, single window clearance, etc.
advocate general, Maharashtra, Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, MCHI, Mhada, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Urban Land Ceiling Act
