Maharashtra mulling over extra FSI for realtors meeting green homes norms

With a view to encourage green homes, the Maharashtra government is considering providing extra FSI to developers complying with green homes norms.

"The government is committed and has many plans to encourage green homes by offering both financial as well as non-financial incentives to the project. To encourage green homes, we are also looking at giving extra FSI for such projects," secretary, state environment ministry, Valsa Nair-Singh, said at a seminar on Green Homes, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), today.

The government has also decided to reduce consent fees for buildings that follow green homes norms, she said.

"We would be announcing reduction in the consent fees for buildings that follow green homes norms, and in some cases even waive it. Besides, we will give a longer duration of consent validity for such buildings," Singh said.

FSI or floor space index is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings to the size of the land and higher FSI allows builder additional construction on the said land.

Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) president, Sunil Mantri, said that the government needs to speed-up the process of granting clearances to housing projects.

"There are nearly 1,000 projects in the Mumbai metropolitan region which are pending clearances from one or the other government department. The delay in clearances will affect the development of affordable and green homes, which, in turn, will lead to escalation of property prices," Mantri said.