UP govt set to revise housing policy
Lucknow- Uttar Pradesh government has planned to revise housing policy in favour of developers for reserving certain percentage of units for economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society in their housing projects on above 3,000 square metres of land.
The policy will be made applicable to both group housing and plot development projects.
According to the 2010 policy, all government, private and cooperative housing schemes, with above 3,000 square metres of area, are mandated to earmark 10 percent units each to EWS and lower income group (LIG). Hence, a developer has to keep a total of 20% land area reserved for these units, only then his layout plan would be approved by the development authority.
The most important clause was to give a huge bank guarantee equivalent to the total amount of land cost (based on DM circle rate) plus the construction cost of these units. Developers were unhappy with this rule as it incorporates high cost burden on them to pay a huge amount as bank guarantee to Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) at the very beginning.
Developers from NCR region, Aligarh and Lucknow had been complaining to the government from time to time. They alleged that if they are forced to pay 100 percent bank guarantee, they are left with too little money to accomplish the project.
But according to LDA officials, this clause was essential in order to maintain transparency in the system as it ensures that the developers do not breach construction norms and allocate required percentage to weaker sections as promised. Currently, there would be around 50 such housing projects in Lucknow.
There are other clauses in the current policy as per which there should be a minimum of 5 units per acre of the scheme. And in case a developer is not able to develop EWS/LIG units in that particular area, he has to build them within 1 metre radius of that location. Completion certificate will be provided by the LDA only if the developer completes construction of EWS/LIG units.
In order to discuss the issue a meeting has been held by the chief secretary with high level officials of LDA, following the developers’ request to modify the policy.
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