Govt sitting on unified DCR file leads to resentment among developers
| Date :16-Oct-2020 |
By Vikas Vaidya ;
The then Devendra Fadnavis Government in Maharashtra had assured that ‘Unified Development Control Regulations’, would streamline the realty sector. It would link the height of a building to the width of the adjoining road that is one good thing with some others. There are many such modifications that would see sea-change, the Government had said. Of course, developers were not much worried about the rules, they were desparate about the implementation of the rules as early as possible.
Unfortunately, the rules after the passage of almost 20 months have not implemented. The developers are in a confused state as they cannot do the project applying old rules and Government is sitting on new rules. What Fadnavis Government had proposed, the new Mahavikas Aaghadi led by Uddhav Thackeray has disposed. Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who had the Urban Development portfolio too was instrumental in preparing the unified DCR in 2017. But the expert committee had pointed out certain loopholes. It was decided to remove those deficiencies and implement the new DCR. Fadnavis Government convened several meetings with the associations of developers. It had reached close to the implementation but new MVA Government came to power and the implementation delayed. It is not that MVA Government did not take any efforts to implement but it made certain changes. According to highly placed sources, the changes were made without taking the stakeholders into confidence.
The new Government had started the process to implement unified development control regulations (DCR) — land and building development rules — for all municipal corporations (excluding Mumbai), councils, panchayats and metropolitan regions. The changes the Government incorporated were opposed by majority of these bodies. CREDAI Maharashtra President Rajubhai Parekh, Secretary Sunil Kotwal, Vice President Maharashtra and Nagpur President-Mahesh Sadhwani Secretary Gaurav Agarwala who have been constantly taking up the issue with the Government said, “The changes were not the issue. But we wanted the implementation to be done faster as developers are on the verge of becoming bankrupt. There are many real estate businessmen who have frustrated, depressed.
The reason is simple we either can’t go by the existing rules nor the new ones as they are still in the file on whom Government is sitting.” The state’s urban development department (UDD) had issued a notification on March 8 inviting suggestions and objections on unified DCR. Every now and then the UDD and Chief Minister kept assuring that the DCR would be implemented but it was not done. The developers especially doing projects in the 14 D category Municipal Corporations are the major sufferers. According to CREDAI and other developers the lockdown due to Covid pandemic has already damaged the businesses. There was no takers for the real estate properties for the last six months.
These developers sat idle sans business. This has not only damaged their finances but their future prospects too. To add to their woes, though lockdown was removed they are not able to do their businesses now also. Thanks to the Government for not implementing the unified DCR. The CREDAI and others demanded Government to implement the unified DCR as soon as possible.