Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation council today passed a resolution that will make real-estate developers, especially promoters of plotted schemes, pay for their failure to develop basic infrastructure near a housing project.
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said: "We have passed the resolution based on which the builders will have to give a bank guarantee to the civic body. After the completion of the project, if our engineers find that the developer has failed to keep any of his promises, then the money will be deducted from the amount and it will be used to build the infrastructure."
Earlier, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) used to collect only peripheral charges from the real-estate builders for developing basic facilities such as such as roads, drains and power supply lines in a locality.
The promoter then had to procure a certificate from the civic body and produce it to the development authority to get the final approval. But now, with the building plan approval lying with the civic body, the BMC will be implementing it directly.
Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "While listening to people's grievances, we mostly come across complaints regarding lack of roads, drains and power connection in colonies on the city outskirts. Since we are now issuing building plan approval, we think this new concept will force the builders to do the needful. This will be applicable to those who are also building multi-storeyed structures and apartment complexes."
The entire amount is, however, refundable if the builder finishes work on time and meets the requirements.
Real-estate developer and member of the national forum of the Confederation of Real-Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) D.S. Tripathy said: "We are not against any new development charges, but at a time when the industry is already in a crisis and housing needs of the middle and lower-middle class is yet to be addressed properly, this will definitely not be of any help."
In another development, the council today also took a decision to complete all de-silting work of the municipal drains by June 15 as the monsoon is likely to hit the coast by June first week. "We have already done the first round in last December, so we can finish the remaining work within the deadline," said the municipal commissioner.
However, on the de-silting work of the 10 major storm water channel, which are under the control of the water resource department, he added: "Three meetings were held under the chairmanship of the official concerned to ensure de-silting of the channels. We hope they will finish the work by that time."
Councillor Amaresh Jena from Chintamaniswar, where storm water channel No. 6 creates havoc during rainy season, said: "If there is no coordination between the desilting process of small drains and the major channels, then there will be waterlogging issues. All the municipal drains work as tributaries to the channels. If the channels are not cleaned properly, then what is the meaning of de-silting the smaller drains?"
Source : The Telegraph
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