Sunil Mantri, Chairman of Mantri Realty Comments on New Guidelines Welcomed by NAREDCO

    BANGALORE, INDIA, August 26, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) has appealed to the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry to allow empanelment or to delegate powers to practicing and registered architects with the Council of Architecture, thus reducing the time required for clearing building plan approvals.

As a part of the demand, architects having more than 15 years of experience should be allowed to clear the building plans (Plan, Elevation, Area statements) at par with signing of the Balance Sheet by Chartered Accountants under the control of the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) has welcomed the new guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest in respect of high rise buildings. The guidelines would now allow greater flexibility for state governments and local bodies, to decide on high rise buildings, based on issues such as population density, pressure on land, etc. NAREDCO feels that the new guidelines will help in the completion of stalled projects and also encourage slum rehabilitation projects as said by Sunil Mantri, Chairman of Mantri Realty.

The new guidelines are a result of suggestions taken by the ministry from the various state governments and the industry. Also, MOEF had examined the representations and recommendations of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of Dr K Kasturirangan, member of Planning Commission, before deciding on the issue.

Sunil Mantri, Chairman of Mantri Realty said, "As the government is now looking at bringing in more and more transparency in this sector, this would be the right time to allow the Building Plan approval through architects having 10-15 years and above experience. Further, the approval of the Building Plan should be uploaded on the website - a leaning towards transparency - to be accessible to the public. We strongly believe there should not be any harm in allowing approval of Building Plan at par with Chartered Accountants signing of Balance Sheets and representing to income tax department/tribunals. Besides the developers are confident that the prices can be lowered by at least 10% if approvals are allowed to be granted by professional, experienced architects."

Currently these approvals are sorted from the 'Planning Authority' or 'Municipal Corporations' which at times result in abnormal delay in the approval of Building Plans. Further, the developer community is often criticized by stake holders as 'seed for corruption' when such approvals are being granted by officials. NAREDCO feels that by allowing the 'Building Plan' approval through Architects, the corruption in the entire system can be drastically brought down or altogether eradicated. The Municipal Corporations can take on the mantel of monitoring these approvals that are granted by Architects, thus saving substantial time.

Welcoming the development, Sunil Mantri, Chairman of Mantri Realty, said, "We are glad that the anomalies within earlier guidelines have been removed. The new guidelines will help more than 100 projects to complete construction. Our estimate is that nearly Rs. 10,000 crore has been blocked in such projects. Road width versus building's height was the greatest challenge in congested cities like Mumbai, where high rise apartments are the only option available, irrespective of the road width. Indeed, allowing local planning authority and the state government to follow the local rules and regulations is the most practical solution to the issue".

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