New policy to push for affordable housing

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s new housing policy would address one of the biggest urban infrastructure crises stalling Mumbai’s growth — lack of affordable housing for all and adequate supply of houses. It would also facilitate foreign direct investment in a big way in the housing sector in the state.

State chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has asked a task force, he set up on Tuesday, to draft the policy to get working on these two issues, officials in the housing and urban development departments told ET. Mr Deshmukh said the task force would draft a holistic policy for the entire state, appreciating peculiar development control needs of each urban conglomerate.

“There cannot be a uniform development control rule for all the cities since every city has its own peculiarities. But the state needs to have a holistic housing policy that would remove anomalies in the existing norms and provide a boost to the housing sector,” Mr Deshmukh said.

Mr Deshmukh said the new policy would be free from flaws in the existing policy being implemented by Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). Mr Deshmukh believes the new policy would put urban housing schemes and consequently the entire housing industry in the state on fast-track of development.

Chief secretary DK Sankaran, heads the task force and principal secretary, housing, S Kshatriya, is the member-secretary. The task force has been asked to draft the policy by November 30, ’06. Mr Kshatriya told ET that the chief minister has clearly outlined the objectives before the task force.

“Affordable housing for all sections and adequate availability of stock are the two objectives that would govern the policy. In this sense, it would be a path-breaking policy. The housing sector in the state is facing several issues in the context of rapid urbanisation and economic liberalisation.

“One of the important issues is how do we make the housing sector much more attractive for FDI. The task force will factor all these issues and draft a holistic policy for the state,” Mr Kshatriya told ET.

Mr Kshatriya said, a lack of affordable housing and adequate supply have contributed to the slumming of not only Mumbai but other major urban centres in the state. “The solution lies in making stock available and affordable. It is only by making housing affordable and available that we can complement growth in Maharashtra’s GDP and people’s purchasing power,” Mr Kshatriya said.

A flawed and outdated housing policy, redundant rules and regulations, and lack of transparency have necessitated the need for a new policy, bureaucrats feel. “At present, there are some 54 no-objection certificates a developer needs to obtain to implement a housing scheme on behalf of the government. We need to have fewer number of regulations and a much more simplified structure,” Mr Kshatriya said.

The task force would also recommend measures that would make housing schemes financially profitable for the government. “At present, a developer who implements a housing scheme on government land earns profit through TDR (transfer of development rights) but it’s virtually a no-profit venture for the government. We are thinking of making such schemes profitable for the government besides achieving the priority objective of housing. The task force would look into this aspect as well,” the housing secretary said.

In this regard, the state would study housing schemes being implemented in Delhi for the urban poor and also examine housing policies in other states.