A housing policy initiated by Nitish Kumar’s government may well become the benchmark for the BMC.
A housing policy initiated by Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar may well become the benchmark for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), that’s struggling to solve the city’s housing woes.
The policy, formulated by the Bihar state government, led to the amendment of civic rules governing the approval of new projects. “Under the new policy, the civic body just notifies the detailed guidelines, according to which the architects are required to plan the new projects.
There is no need for the developer to even seek the civic body’s formal okay, as long as all the parameters of the project are within the prescribed guidelines,” said SK Singh, joint secretary, ministry of housing & urban poverty alleviation, who was in the city to attend a housing seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Disclosing details about Bihar’s innovative approach to expediting housing schemes, Singh said that the Bihar pattern will shortly be recommended by the centre to all states for local implementation.
“Cities like Mumbai, where real-estate projects are getting delayed due to permission processes, could benefit immensely with this policy,” Singh said, adding that the system allows doing away with various layers of plan approval and any permission, if needed, is given through single-window clearance.
He also stressed on the need for faster clearance from the centre, particularly for real-estate projects seeking the nod from the environment ministry or the aviation ministry.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh also revealed that the centre has plans to introduce another housing welfare scheme — the Rajiv Awaas Yojna — that will empower slum dwellers by giving them ownership of their tenements. “This will give the slum dwellers more negotiating power at the time of rehabilitation or redevelopment,” he said.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Bihar policy initiative, Firdose Vandrewala, chairman, CII national committee on real estate & housing, and managing director, Hirco Developments, said that much more needs to be done for inclusive development.
“There is no point in changing municipal acts and building homes in Bihar, when the jobs are in Mumbai,” Vandrewala said.
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