Slump in property market aside,highrise projects on an upswing

The projects that the committee has cleared in the past six months include some premium ones by prominent builders including Lodha Developers,Omkar Builders,Nirmal Lifestyle,Orbit Corporation,Runwal Developers,HBS and Rajesh Lifespaces.

The committee had received 76 proposals this year up to June. A majority of the proposals cleared is buildings with more than 40 storeys. These are mostly in the eastern suburbs and the island city,civic officials said.

Developers and experts are attributing the spurt in the number of proposals coming to the table to the streamlining of the processes in the committee. In the past three years,members have gradually brought in more clarity on terms of reference while assessing projects and efficiency in clearing them.

“A relatively more streamlined process of approval from the committee has led to more developers submitting high-rise proposals. It was otherwise a tedious and lengthy process,” said Pujit Agarwal,managing director of Orbit Corporation,whose major project on Napean Sea Road was one of those approved.

The first technical high-rise committee was functioning between 2004 and 2007. In three years,the first committee had received 87 proposals,of which it cleared 65 per cent. The second committee,which functioned from 2007 to 2010,received 161 proposals. It approved more than 80 per cent.

The current committee has received 205 proposals so far. With three months to go for its dissolution,it has already cleared 70 per cent of them.

“The increased need for public parking,which these projects provide,coupled with an increase in the availability of fungible Floor Space Index (FSI),seems to have led to the increase in proposals,” municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte said.

According to Section 33 (24) of the Development Control Regulations (DCR),new construction on a plot of over 1,000 sq m in the island city and over 2,000 sq m in the suburbs gets additional FSI of up to 4 if the developer agrees to build public parking lots and hand over these to BMC free of cost.

Pankaj Kapoor of real estate consulting firm Liases Foras said,“As one goes higher vertically,every additional floor fetches the developer an extra one per cent in his earning,amounting to an almost 40 per cent increase for a flat on the 40th floor,making it very lucrative for him.”