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Government likely to come up with fresh township policy soon |
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Written by Hiral Vyas
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Thursday, 01 October 2009 04:37 |
The state government has reportedly decided to put its much-touted Integrated Township Policy on the backburner. It has now mooted a proposal for a fresh policy for the planned development of housing sectors in and around all major cities and towns of Gujarat. In 2007, the government had announced the Gujarat Integrated Township Policy at the Vibrant Gujarat Urban Summit in Ahmedabad. The state Urban Development department had even inked MoUs with prospective developers promising investment proposals worth Rs 1.08 lakh crore at the Summit. But even after over two years, the government could not implement the policy due to “some lacunae” in it.
A few days ago, the department had initiated an exercise to revise the Integrated Township Policy in its bid to make it more pragmatic and comprehensive for its effective implementation. As things stand now, the government has decided to put the previous policy on the backburner.
“We have replaced the word ‘Integrated’ with ‘Residential’ in the proposed policy, the draft regulations for which have been prepared and submitted to the state Urban Development Minister for consideration. Recently, UD officials made a power point presentation on the proposed policy before Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Now, it’s for the government to take a final decision on it,” a senior official told Newsline on Wednesday.
Though state Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel could not be contacted, as he was busy attending a function to felicitate President Pratibha Patil in Gandhinagar, sources in his department said the ‘Draft Regulations for The Residential Township — 2009’ was already prepared and submitted to the government.
A document containing draft regulations highlights, among others, one important provision made in the new policy — 10 per cent reservation in dwellings for socially and economically weaker sections in residential townships. Also, there is a provision for registered co-operative societies of small and marginal farmers to be given special preference for housing accommodation in such townships.
The document, a copy of which is with this newspaper, says that residential township should come up on a plot of land not less than 40 hectares in the case of urban development authorities in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat, and not less than 20 hectares in the case of other towns and cities and relevant urban authorities.
Under the proposed policy, the township developer will have to acquire, own or pool the land at his own expenses, provide and maintain all necessary infrastructure facilities, disclose to the beneficiaries all details of the building plan and design, and also execute a bank guarantee equivalent to 2 per cent of the total cost incurred on the infrastructure at the time of issuing building use permission for the township he may develop.
Besides the permissible floor space index (FSI) being available to the developer, the premium FSI from 0.5 to 1.0 based on jantri rates will be permitted on payment to the competent authority. Two separate “prescribed committees” are proposed to be set up by the government for the regulations under the new policy.
If such townships are set up under the jurisdiction of municipal corporations or urban development authorities, the prescribed officers will be municipal commissioner, chief executive authority or senior town planner of the authority.
For municipality areas, collector and chairman of the district urban development agency, chief officer, and town planner of the district concerned will be the prescribed officers.
These committees will recommend to the government, within 30 days from the receipt of an application by the developer, to approve or refuse his proposal for developing a township. These panels will also evaluate and approve the progress. The developer will have to carry out the construction work in one year from the issuance of the permission.
Courtesy : www.indianexpress.com
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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 October 2009 04:48 |
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