RERA can grade real estate promoters to increase credibility, feel industry experts
While speaking at a session on 'Policy to Prosperity: RERA, Ease of Doing Business & Regulatory Outlook', he said, grading the promoters will help the public. 'One of the critical aspects of RERA is to ensure the accountability and credibility of the promoters. They can also be incentivised for such practises. The list of promoters could be published, making the process transparent. It will also encourage people to follow good practices and will benefit the public significantly,' he said.
Sanjay Chugh, city head and director, ANAROCK Property Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, said, over the last eight years, RERA has been carrying out a fantastic job in Tamil Nadu by executing its regulatory role. 'Now, RERA can take on a larger role, like enforcing green building norms or safety audits. They could get more involved in sustainability. Now, RERA can spread its wings to a larger cause protecting home buyers,' he added.
With respect to redevelopment of apartments, Mr. Chugh said, the challenge the developer faces is that there is a lot of confusion within owners of properties about the issue. 'Developers spend a lot of time talking, engaging with them. Some of the projects take a long time for redevelopment. RERA can play an important role in educating, setting certain guidelines which one has to follow,' he said.
He noted that Chennai has potential for vertical growth and the time has come to focus on it.
Sridharan Swaminathan, chairman, Sabari and LYRA Properties Pvt. Ltd. and Executive Committee Member, CREDAI National, New Delhi, said, if a city has overgrown and has to grow further, then vertical development is the way forward. Otherwise, people must move to satellite towns.
'The focus should be on giving the best infrastructure available to the extended areas of the city. Greater concentration on infrastructure and transportation will make it a success. Now, Metro Rail is coming up on Rajiv Gandhi Salai. But if there is no Metro Rail connectivity to that area, then, commuting to OMR will be a nightmare,' he added.
Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu moderated the event.
The event is presented by Casagrand and co-presented by G Square. The green energy partner is Swelect and the sports ecosystem partners are SDAT and Tamil Nadu Champions Foundation. The event is supported by CREDAI Tamil Nadu, Lancor, Namma Family Group. The strategic partner is MMA (Madras Management Association). The TV partner is Puthiya Thalaimurai and the digital partner is The Federal.
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The Hindu
32 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Central govt. has released over ₹8,000 cr. for Chennai Metro Rail's phase II project
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Time of India
15 hours ago
- Time of India
Optimising public investment in India's infrastructure growth: The challenges of saving time and cost overruns
Advt Advt By , ETInfra Infrastructure is both an indicator and essential condition of national growth. There is enough economic analysis and empirical work to demonstrate that public investment in infrastructure has a multiplier effect. It attracts the private sector spending and boosts the national how effective public expenditure is depends almost entirely on how timely projects are delivered. India's ambitious growth trajectory can neither afford nor accommodate cost and time overruns in a scenario of limited budgetary allocations towards capex and competing sectors. It is in this perspective that we must review the Government of India's historic investments in infrastructure during the last 11 years.A World Bank report categorically assessed that investing in resilient infrastructure pays for itself four times over. The report, 'Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity', examined four essential infrastructure systems: Power, Water and Sanitation, Transport and Telecommunications. It was found that investing in more resilient infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries could be over $5 trillion with $4 in benefit for each $1 invested. The report based on its global empirical analyses observed that Africa and South Asia bear the highest losses from unreliable growth story, heavily relying upon its significant investments and unprecedented capex allocations to its infrastructure sector during the last decade is an example of how efficiently the public sector investments are made to secure a solid base of resilient infrastructure in the global ten years have indeed witnessed a transformative development of India's infra sector. A very focussed and nuanced strategy provided this sector incredible financing from the general exchequer during the last decade, increasing annually and peaking at over ₹11 lakh crore during 2024-25 and again in was unprecedented and unshackled the ministries and departments from financial constraints to plan, invest and commission most of the delayed and pending projects needed to bolster the economy. The physical achievements almost matched with the Capex provided. Some of these highlights indicate the outcomes of this fiscal Road and Highways sector which had 91,287 km. of National Highways till 2013-14, has today increased the same to 1,46,204 km. India with over 63 lakhs plus km of road network (which also includes 179535 km of State highways and 6019723 km of other roads), now ranks second increase in the budget for road transport and highways has gone up by 570 per cent from 2014 to 2023-24. With adequate funding being provided, the pace of National Highways construction has gone up from 11.6 km per day in 2013-14 to 34 km a day in increased Public Sector investments for improving urban mobility specifically for providing efficient, environment friendly mass transport systems like the Metro Rail, resulted in 23 cities having a combined network of 1013 km. of commissioned Metro lines by May 2025 compared to just about 248 km. in 2014. India today ranks third in Metro rail network after China and the its 395 km network, DMRC will overtake New York's 399 km. subway network this year and by next year end India is set to surpass the total of 1389 km of US Metro rail network to become the second largest in the world. 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The capex helped laying of 31000 km of new tracks, and upgradation of over 45000 km of existing rail lines. Phenomenal growth was registered in the traffic output, revenue generation, provision of passenger amenities, production of rolling stock, connectivity to ports and remote regions, dedicated freight corridors and electrification etc. during this aviation sector too received enhanced budgetary support for augmenting the infrastructure. As of today, India has 160 operational airports including 02 water aerodromes and 13 Heliports. A number of greenfield airports are currently being developed to improve regional connectivity and ensuring economic and shipping sector has shown incredible growth during the last decade. 277 projects have been completed under Sagarmala programme worth Rs 1.41 lakh crore. 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Urban Development, Coal, Power, Telecommunications and Petroleum formed the resilient infrastructure group and brought about major physical growth in their respective of India decided to augment the capex allocations from General Budget to infrastructure ministries and departments for enhancing their networks and capacities keeping in view the vision of Viksit Bharat by prioritising the infrastructure sector over other social underlying assumption being creation of assets and fixed physical infra for decades to come to support the fastest growing economy's demands. It is therefore a reasonable expectation that the investments in the form of Capex shall be utilised in the most prudent manner. 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States also have their share of central sector projects under MoSPI monitoring. 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These projects had a COR of ₹4,03,312 crore and TOR ranging from 1 to 261 months. Overall, as on 31st may the total COR was at a whopping ₹571080 crore (20.70 per cent).Ministries and departments do provide reasons and elaborate factors that cause projects to slip into TOR and COR. Most of these include issues related to Land Acquisition, Forest and Environmental clearances, Financial, Contractual and Litigation related the cost overrun of projects as on 30 June 2025 at ₹3,15,607 crore is significantly lower than ₹5,71,080 as on 31st May 2024, the avoidable COR of such staggering level must be minimised The Time overrun is an associated factor of the Cost overrun and therefore the working out of the original cost estimates requires careful and exhaustive planning with target dates of completion becoming sacrosanct. The best practices globally and from our own private sector for minimising such factors need to be adopted if overruns inherently necessitate additional funding and strain on stretched finances. Underestimation of cost and timelines too impact projects at a later stage. Other factors may involve, scope adjustment, material modification leverage and mismanagement. For all mega projects (costing ₹1000 crore and above) an outside monitoring group like the Gati Shakti must undertake periodical audit and steer the projects out of the impending COR and TORs in is also a fact that the infrastructure projects are now being monitored with a precision and thoroughness that is new to India's national development system. From the highest levels through PRAGATI to the internal mechanisms being adopted by Infra ministries to MoSPI, every effort is being made to gainfully utilise allocations towards capex, recognising how hard earned and precious it climb to a $30 trillion economy and a Viksit Bharat must have precision, and it must have pace. The elimination of overruns will be as important a yardstick of our national growth, as the volume of investments we make.(M. Jamshed is a Distinguished Fellow at Chintan Research Foundation. Views are personal.)
The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
Affordable housing needs collaboration between Centre and State, say panellists
The State and Central governments must collaborate and work together for providing affordable housing, and address issues of equity and financial inclusion. This was one of the major insights shared at the discussion on 'Affordable Housing: Bridging the Urban Housing Gap' organised as part of The Hindu Tamil Nadu Real Estate Summit 2025 in the city on Tuesday. The topics deliberated include the need for inclusive housing, challenges faced by private developers, and the role of the government in providing affordable housing. Noting that housing for marginalised communities cannot be ensured with a one-size-fits-all approach, cannot be done in a one-size-fits-all approach, Vanessa Peter, founder, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities, said basic requirements should be met without compromising on traditional livelihood spaces. Underlining the challenges in ensuring affordable housing for socially disadvantaged people, she said communities must be consulted before designing houses, and a robust third-party quality monitoring mechanism put in place to reduce design flaws. Speakers also stressed the affordability of housing for urban poor population under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) by waiver of beneficiary contribution to some extent. When asked whether incremental housing would be developed in satellite townships, A. Srivathsan, professor, Head of the Centre for Research on Architecture and Urbanism at CEPT University, said Arumbakkam Sites and Services Scheme was one of the best examples for incremental housing. The area has turned beyond recognition over a generation as people have become economically strong. However, such housing is only possible with design and legal modifications, given land cost limitations. Pointing out that housing for economically weaker sections is largely covered by the State, he said that land availability and construction cost were some of the challenges. Private players are more interested in promoting housing for higher income groups. Though developing a grid of roads would be ideal for structured housing development, people are often willing to suffer lack of infrastructure and focus on the land cost. Highlighting that inclusive housing was a critical component of equitable growth, R.V. Shekar, chairman and managing director (MD), Lancor Group, spoke on the need for creating an environment to collaborate with the Central government to develop integrated satellite townships at subsidised cost. A pilot project, with up to two lakh houses, could be planned near Chennai. P. Suresh, MD, Arun Excello Group, spoke on integrated township in Oragadam that aims at improving lifestyle. However, obtaining land parcel for developing such townships was a challenge. The government played a pivotal role in allotting land parcels to develop housing for communities. The Central government should consider restoring the benefits offered under the earlier version of the PMAY, and reduce taxes to resolve issues of affordable housing to low and middle income groups. ing. R. Sujatha, former Deputy Editor, The Hindu, moderated the session. The event is presented by Casagrand and co-presented by G Square. The Green Energy partner for the event is Swelect and the Sports Ecosystem partners are SDAT and Tamil Nadu Champions Foundation. The event is supported by CREDAI Tamil Nadu, Lancor, Namma Family Group. The Strategic partner is MMA (Madras Management Association) and the TV and digital partners are Puthiya Thalaimurai, the Federal voice of the States respectively.
