Mumbai: The State Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, on Thursday, said the government was planning a public private partnership (PPP) policy for affordable housing in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The minister, speaking at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said by the end of 2018, the government would have crystallised its plans to meet its target of creating 20 lakh affordable houses across the state by 2022, of which 10 lakh will be in the MMR.
Under the PPP model, the State government plans to acquire land from individuals and build low-cost homes, Mr. Mehta told reporters on the sidelines of the CII event. “There are cases where people own large land parcels which range from 100 to 500 acres around the MMR region and want to develop them, but do not have the financial capacity. They get an FSI for 1 and need to pay a premium for extra FSI,” said Mr. Mehta. “In such cases, the government will acquire the land through the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and will build the houses,” said Mr. Mehta.
Under the proposed policy, the State will bear the cost of development. The minister said discussions were under way on how to compensate the land owners, and that the policy would be finalised in a month’s time.
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The Chief Minister, he said, has directed MHADA to be the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme across the State in order to streamline the process with other agencies.
Mr. Mehta also said the the real estate sector’s two major issues were the Goods and Services Tax and getting environment no-objection certificates.
He said the government’s environment committee will be meeting every three to four days to expedite issues around environment clearances.
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