State likely to retain land ceiling Act

With the auction route for land allocation unlikely to help realtors, facing acute land shortage for new development, the West Bengal government is set to bring out a new policy for land acquisition, meant specifically for land owned by private individuals or groups. However, much to the disappointment of developers, the government was unlikely to dissolve the urban land ceiling Act, one of the key demands of realtors, said sources.

The orders passed by whisteblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka as Director-General, Land Consolidation, continue to haunt the Hooda government.

Even as the controversy surrounding the fast-tracking of Robert Vadra’s land deals is yet to die down, the fragmentation and privatisation of hundreds of acres in the NCR overlooking the Aravalis, including two villages in Gurgaon and Faridabad, whose consolidation process was denotified by Ashok Khemka on the charges of purchase by a business-politico-bureaucratic-police nexus has come under the scanner of the National Green Tribunal(NGT).

Shot in arm: Total FSI for saleable residential projects increased up to 1.7

Over six years after it introduced the Special Township Project (STP) scheme to promote self-sustainable micro-economic hubs in and around urban centres in Maharashtra, the state government on Sunday finalised several modifications to the existing policy. While the total FSI for saleable residential projects has been increased from 1 to a maximum of 1.7, the government has also increased the component of low-cost housing and the area that has to be reserved for economic activities within the township.

New Delhi: Taking suo motu cognizance of the TOI report on how common hilly and forest land in Aravalis is getting fragmented and privatized in the name of consolidation, National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday issued notices to the principal conservator of forest and the chief secretary of Haryana.

The bench headed by Justice Swatantra Kumar has listed the case for hearing on January 23. This is the first time the green tribunal has taken note of a news report on its own, considering the possible impact of diverting forest land for non-forest uses.

Joshi issues directive to speed up ongoing projects

With private players evincing little interest in taking up road projects, the Centre has scaled down targets for awarding National Highway projects for the current financial year by over 50 per cent. After a review meeting the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway has decided to award just about 4,600 km of roads during the current financial year. To make up for this Minister C. P. Joshi has issued directive to speed up ongoing projects, according to highly placed sources.

State-owned Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) plans to finance construction of five lakh affordable houses this financial year with a majority of them coming up in rural areas, and increase the number 10% every year for the next five years.

VP Baligar, chairman and managing director of the corporation that finances and promotes housing and urban infrastructure projects across the country, said Hudco has already financed 3.8 lakh housing units this year and hoped to cross 5 lakh units by the end of the fiscal. “More than 90% of these have been in affordable housing segment for economically weaker section,” he said.

The building industry is hopeful that the latest set of amendments to Kerala Building Rules (KBR), announced on Thursday, will help stem horizontal urban sprawl, cut red tape and reduce the time now taken for approval of building plans.

Containing the horizontal spread of the city area will help reduce any further damage to the environment from reclamation of precious wetland bodies and paddy fields. Proposals like a single-window clearance of plans will help drastically reduce the time now taken for approvals.

A Few days after the GMR Group announced its intent to walk out of the 555-km long Kishangarh-Ahmedabad highway, the GVK Group has informed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) that it wishes to exit the 330-km long Shivpuri-Dewas highway in Madhya Pradesh. GVK had promised to pay NHAI a little under R3,000 crore (on an NPV basis, using a 10% annual discount) for the highway it was four-laning, over a period of 30 years — starting with a payment of R190 crore in the first year, the payment was to be escalated by 5% in each subsequent year.

NCP ministers warn CM against opening prime land for real estate development

NCP vehemently opposed the new Maharashtra industrial policy Wednesday, saying it was an opportunity for big developers to grab land at a throwaway price on the excuse of promoting industry. At a cabinet meeting that okayed the policy, senior NCP ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil and R R Patil questioned its real objective.

All other NCP ministers and even some Congress ministers supported the three who kept arguing for almost four hours.

The Odisha High Court (HC) on Thursday declared the agreement between ARSS Infrastructure Projects Ltd, a city-based firm and Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) ‘null and void’.

ARSS and OSRTC had entered into a pact for developing a modern, state-of-the-art bus terminal over 14.43 acres at the Baramunda locality in the city.
The High Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in this regard in January this year.