Maharashtra government tweaks housing norm

Citing an acute paucity of affordable housing stock in Maharashtra, the previous government had made it mandatory for big-ticket projects to construct 30 sq m and 50 sq m homes for EWS and LIG, respectively, on 20 per cent of the built-up space for such plots.

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Allowing almost all construction projects in Mumbai to escape the norm, the BJP-led state government’s latest notification further says, “There shall be no obligation to construct affordable housing tenements in redevelopment projects involving cessed buildings, mill lands and slums.” It also excludes cluster redevelopment projects and plots where the user has been officially converted from industrial to residential, and “any housing scheme or residential development project where more than 20 per cent of the basic zonal FSI is already required to be utilised for construction of 30 sq m and 50 sq m homes”.

All development projects on government or semi-government land, whether undertaken by government agencies or by private players, have been exempted too. The notification also makes it clear that it will not be applicable for development of plots reserved for public housing, housing for the displaced, and high-density housing.

Fadnavis had earlier said it wasn’t mandatory to provide tenements for EWS and LIG in inclusive housing schemes on the same plot, providing the option of building these tenements at an alternative place in the same municipal ward. The CM had then argued that the option was provided in view of “practical hurdles in development”.

The UD department has, however, ruled that the market value of the site where the tenements are being provided would be compared with that of the plot, and the housing stock to be provided by the developer would increase if the ready reckoner rate of the alternate site is lower. “Such construction will be free of FSI up to the limit of 50 per cent of the permissible FSI of such plot,” the notification states.

The inclusive housing rule says such affordable homes are to be handed over to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority for sale through its public lottery process and for use by the civic body and the state government as transit shelters and staff quarters.

Incidentally, while the initial rule said the developers would be paid construction rates prescribed by the government for such homes, the latest modification enhances this to 125 per cent of these construction rates.

“The government construction rates are usually lower than the market rates…” reasoned a senior state official. Opposed to the idea of low and high income housing on the same plot, builders’ associations had been seeking relaxation in the norms.