15.7 crore sq ft land sanctioned, only 3.76 cr completed
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28/03/2008
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Indian Express (Mumbai)
In the last three years, the city engineer's office of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) sanctioned a mind-boggling 15.69 crore sq ft for development in the city. Against this the city builders could procure completion certificate for only 3.76 crore sq ft of built space. This would suggest that builders have been sitting on 12 crore sq ft of sanctioned building plans over these three years. True, there would be a spillover of projects sanctioned in the previous years into the last three years and similarly many of those projects sanctioned in this period will get held back for development later. Yet, it gives an indication as to the space available for development with the builders, post-sanction from the authorities. At an average of 1,000 sq ft per unit, this means that the PMC sanctioned building plans for around 1.5 lakh apartments in the city during 2005-08. Against this, the city saw only less than 38,000 apartments being readied by way of completion certificate getting issued by the civic authorities. As per rule, a building project for which a development sanction has been procured has to be completed in four years. However, an extension can be availed by submitting an application for the same with the PMC. President of Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP) Lalitkumar Jain said the gap between the sanctioned and completed projects of the PMC is not that big. "Of the 15.69 crore sq ft for which plan has been approved, most projects get stuck in litigation. There are a few others who sleep over the project and there are another set who do not go ahead with projects because of infrastructure problems,' Jain said. If in 2007-08, as much as 5.71 crore sq ft was sanctioned as per development plans submitted by city builders for 3,924 projects, in 2006-07 it was 5.36 crore sq ft for 4,919 projects and in 2005-06 it was 4.62 crore sq ft sanctioned for 4,626 building plans. The built space for which the PMC gave completion certificate was 88 lakh sq ft in 2007-08 (with only three days, there is not expected to be much change in this figure), 1.32 crore sq ft in 2006-07 and 1.55 crore sq ft in 2005-06. Against this, the PMC has given completion certificate to only 3,296 projects in these three years. Of this, only 775 projects were completed in 2007-08, 1,168 projects in 2006-07 and 1,353 in 2005-06. At another level, there is a lot of speculation on which are the fringe areas of the district that will see land being freed for development under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCRA) repeal. For many months now, Pune, like other major cities in Maharashtra, have been keenly waiting for the repeal of the ULCRA to show results. As per the state government records, as much as 23,750 acres will become available for development in Pune district. This is out of around 55,000 acres for the entire state. The investors are keenly awaiting the fine print as this is expected to lead to a 10-15 per cent slump in land prices, though it will take another six months for the correction to take place, according to the town planning department sources. The much hyped and sought after hill station tracts in Maval and Mulshi are lined up to see a major chunk of this land released, thus leading to a significant climb down in prices. On another front, Khed taluka with a good number of SEZs dotting its landscape will also see price correction - especially in Chakan and Rajgurunagar. However, the IT hub Hinjewadi will remain largely unaffected. "Presently Chakan, located around 25 km from the city, land prices rule at Rs 15-20 lakh per acre. A 10-15 per cent correction will bring to the Rs13-18 lakh per acre range. This is against Rs 60-70 lakh per acre within city limits, wherever land is available. But this may not hold true along the arterial roadside where the international airport will ensure there is no price dip,' said joint director town planning KS Akode.