One Time Sanction of Drawings for Real Estate Projects in Himachal is enough, no renewal required, says HP RERA Chief  

New Delhi, February 3, 2024: The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) of Himachal Pradesh has conceptualized the time limit of sanctioned drawings for Real Estate Projects, for which the earlier time limit for constructing such projects was 3 years. Henceforth, the State Government holds that once drawings sanctioned for Real Estate in housing projects in the state are obtained, their renewal is not mandatory.

This disclosure was made by the Chairman of RERA Himachal Pradesh, Dr. Shrikant Baldi, at the second day of the 16th Naredco National Convention, “Fostering Trust with Transparency; Pathway 2047,” held on Saturday. He added that the government of Himachal had already extended such a deadline from the earlier period of 3 years to 5 years some time back.

Given the tempo and enthusiasm with which the real estate sector has begun to grow at a rate of approximately 10 per cent per annum in the recent past, the RERA of Himachal Pradesh approached its government and succeeded in persuading it to make the validity of once sanctioned drawings for real estate and housing projects an endless period of time, said Dr. Baldi.

Dr. Baldi, who is also the President of the All India forum of RERA, further informed that this was the demand of developers in general and other stakeholders, and the sustainability limit for sanctioned drawings was extended for a great deal of period for a win-win situation. The government of the state permitted its RERA to undertake the proposed move incorporating necessary changes in the state’s town planning statutes.

The Chairman also informed that the RERA of the state does not accept physical documents for registering any housing and real estate projects, nor does it entertain any requests for complaint lodging by any stakeholders in Real Estate. Instead, it entertains compliments and complaints online to ensure that transparency is strictly observed in every format through which real estate activities are permitted in the state.

According to him, the aforementioned steps are mooted at the All India level because real estate, in general, has started looking up from the level of 7 percent last year to that of 7.3 per cent presently. Similarly, investors in this sector are upbeat given its growth, with bank credit showing an upward trend for the sector from 7.3 percent of the national GDP in the last year to that of 8.7 per cent.

In his welcome remarks, President Naredco G Hari Babu pointed out that real estate and construction activities have to be given preferential treatment across the country because they contribute massively to the national GDP and national growth, with a particular focus on employment.

Babu, however, pointed out that approximately Rs 1 lakh 50 thousand Crores have been deposited with various governments by real estate developers throughout the country as labor cess. The objective of creating such a fund was to be utilized for the benefit of their labor and their wards, as each developer is required to contribute 1 percent of the project cost to the respective state government. However, the fund is hardly serving the stated objective, and the money is languishing. Therefore, steps are needed to utilize this fund.