Housing department does away with conditional approvals

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
Housing and Urban Development Department has done away with conditional approvals for environment clearance, structural stability, and fire service,  which was in place since 2014, raising concern among the developers and residential sector.

The government has been giving conditional approvals to developers  since 2014. The approvals which are required for the project are taken simultaneously once the planning permission application has been submitted. "We decided to do away with the approvals as there have been a lot of complaints over granting conditional approvals," said housing secretary S Apoorva.

This norm was changed two days ago after developers approached Chief minister M K Stalin over the delay in clearing High Rise building proposals.

The Housing Secretary in a communique has stated that applications should have structural stability certificate, environmental clearance certificate and no objection certificate from fire service department as it concerns with the safety of occupants of the building and it is pointless to examine the proposals without that.

What is irking the developers is that proposals have been sent to the Housing secretary of which few without the requisite NoCs got approval while the remaining were returned on the grounds of NoC not being submitted. Apporva defended the decision. "Initially, a few files were considered but when I found that few of the applications don't have even the basic plan, the decision was taken," the housing secretary stated.

"How could a section of the applications without the required NoCs be cleared," questioned a developer. Recently, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) has expressed concern over pending high-rise building (HRB) files awaiting approval from the Housing Department.

Credai has stated that some files that received clearance during the panel meeting held on May 22 have not made progress towards final approval despite multiple representations. "The delay in processing HRB files is causing considerable hardship and these delays translate into substantial financial setbacks and project disruptions, hampering the growth and development of the real estate sector," Credai stated in a letter to the chief minister recently. It is learnt from sources that a fresh representation will be submitted to the Chief minister.