House in Pune

The real estate sector is expecting a liberalised foreign direct investment (FDI) norm and easing of rules for external commercial borrowings, in the present tight project finance situation and rising cost of loans, from the Union Budget 2011-12.

On the other hand, another round of interest subvention and a higher cap on interest deduction available on housing loans to individual taxpayers will offer relief on the affordability front, real estate sector players said. Developers also raised the issue of input costs and felt the need to rework the excise and import duties on steel and cement to restrict the cost of construction.

Satish Magar, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India, told TOI that the industry was reeling under the pressure of rising input costs for the past six months or more. “Prices of steel and cement – the two most important inputs for construction – have jumped 30 to 50 per cent in six months and have impacted the real estate prices. The budget should modify excise and import duty structure to reduce these costs by at least 20 per cent

Chaitali Rao, assistant manager, tax and regulatory services, at business consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers, said the realty sector has attracted many foreign investors who are starting or expanding their operations in India.

Foreign investors have so far contributed significant capital to India’s real estate market. Aggregate FDI inflows into the real estate sector are recorded at approximately 7.42 per cent of the total inflows. There was, however, a growing demand to do away with the three-year lock-in period for FDI investments in realty. The government should think of providing genuine relaxation from the lock-in requirements, which would give some relief to foreign investors.

More News: timesofindia

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday transferred from the State CID to the CBI, probe into the Pune land scam under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCA) and directed the agency to register FIRs against former Urban Development minister and Mumbai BJP chief Raj Purohit and other revenue office
rs of the department within six weeks.

“According to the report, submitted by the one-man Committee appointed by the government, the minister (Purohit) and several revenue officers of the Urban Development department had abused their powers and passed brazenly fraudulent orders,” a division bench of Justices BH Marlapalle and UD Salvi observed.

“The CBI shall take over the probe and shall take steps to register FIR against all those revenue officers named in the report as well as Purohit, then Minister of State for Urban Development within six weeks,” the bench directed.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari alleging that between 1976 and 2005, 11,894 returns (statements of property extracts and details of persons having interest in the land) were filed in the ULCA in the Pune urban agglomeration.

According to the PIL, bogus orders were passed under ULCA to avoid surrendering excess land to the state government.

Purohit’s lawyer Niteen Pradhan said they would challenge the order.

The 29 cases registered by the State CID, Pune between December 2010 and January 2011 following court orders do not name even one of the revenue officers as accused in the scam. This is one of the reasons why the court feels that the case should be handed over to an independent agency which is not under the control of the state government, Justice Marlapalle remarked.

More News: hindustantimes

The Bombay high court on Monday observed that the Pune urban development land scam is the biggest in the country and indicated that it may transfer investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A division bench of justices BH Marlapalle and UD Salvi was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Madhav Bhandari, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman. The PIL, filed in 2005, says that between 1976 and 2005, 11,894 returns (statements of property extracts and details of persons having interest in the land) were filed under the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) in Pune. Italleges that bogus orders were passed under the act to enable some avoid surrendering excess land to the state.

“This is more serious than any other scam in the country. This is a mini 2G scam. Lakhs of square feet of land has been relegated on fake and bogus orders passed under the ULCA,” said justice Marlapalle. The judges have directed the CBI (anti-corruption wing) officer-in-charge to be present in court on February 10, the next date for the hearing.

The judges took note of a report submitted by Sudhakar Joshi, a retired IAS officer appointed by the government to scrutinise 235 files through which the bogus orders were passed under the act.

We have gone through Joshi’s report. Prima facie, we are of the conclusion that a minister of state also seems to be involved in the scam,” said justice Marlapalle.

More News: dnaindia

Pune based corporate house Phadnis Infrastructure, a group engaged in infrastructure development, hospitality business, real estate, power and telecommunication is off to a flying start in the infrastructure business.

Phadnis Group has bagged a contract to build the prestigious ESIC Nursing College and Auditorium at ESIC Hospital, Indiranagar – Bangalore. The total project cost of this project is around Rs.62 Cr and the project is likely to be completed by March 2012.

The foundation Stone of the project was recently laid by Hon.Shri. Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister of Labour and Employment. Govt of India.

Mr. Vinay Phadnis, Chairman and Managing Director, Phadnis Infrastructure said, “Phadnis Infrastructure group has bagged some very prestigious projects in last quarter in various parts of the country. These projects includes development of Residential Colony ,Commercial buildings,hospitals,telecom towers in Maharashtra,Noida (New Delhi),Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & other. Thus, all put together currently Phadnis Infrastructure has contracts worth Rs.427 Cr in hand.”

More News: business-standard

The state government on Thursday approved the Pune metro rail project and said it would make a budgetary provision for the 14.9-km second corridor from Vanaz on Paud road to Ramwadi on Pune-Ahmednagar road. The proposal would be forwarded to the central government for a final approval within 15 days.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan made this announcement in Mumbai at a meeting with elected representatives from Pune.

“The chief minister said the state government fully supports the project. The government will make a provision for the project in the budget to be presented in March,” said NCP leader Nilesh Nikam.

Congress leader Aba Bagul said the metro project will cost Rs 2,281 crore. The Pune Municipal Corporation will contribute 10 per cent towards the project, get 40 per cent from the state and the Centre and source the remaining amount from private players.

“The MLAs and party leaders also discussed the option of an underground metro, but that would prove to be a more expensive affair

More News: timesofindia

The absence of a functioning Pune metropolitan urban development authority and professional urban planners to plan the city is a purposeful strategy of politicians to run the Pune metropolitan area as a cluster of feudal fiefdoms, said internationally acclaimed architect Christopher Benninger here on Thursday.

“Let us stop pretending to be victims of an ill-conceived and corrupt chaos. The urban mess we see has been created intentionally for vested interests that see the real estate market as the only urban reality,” Benninger said during the inaugural session of a national seminar on ‘Urban policy and planning: A case perspective of Pune’ at the Symbiosis School of Economics.

The two-day seminar aims at reviewing a slew of concerns relating to urban Pune, including solid waste management; roads, traffic and pedestrian woes; Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission projects; transport system; land and real estate related issues; water supply and electricity alternatives.

Benninger, who studied urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Architecture at the Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, left his tenured post as a teacher at Harvard, to establish the School of Planning at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, in the early 1970s. He shifted to Pune in 1976 to establish the Centre for Development Studies and Activities.

He said, “Our local authorities are struggling with under-paid and under-qualified staff to tackle problems that can only be solved at the metropolitan-region level. Nagpur instituted an urban development trust more than a century ago. Pune, which ranks among the 10 largest metropolitan areas in India, lacks even a hint of an urban development authority. We are really backward.”

More News: timesofindia

Around 47,600 new vehicles were added to the vehicle population in the city in 2010, of which 32,844 were two-wheelers. The number of fatalities also increased at an alarming rate of 34%, compared to 2009.

While commercial vehicles increased by 11,006, Puneites purchased 4,727 new cars in 2010. According to the Regional Transport Office, the city now plays host to 1,24,196 two-wheelers, 39,141 cars and 13,166 commercial vehicles.

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Manoj Patil said most of the road accidents that took place in the city involved two-wheelers.

“A large number of heavy vehicles pass through the city as highways to Mumbai, Satara and Solapur wind through it. Some cities have comparatively better ring roads and road networks. In Pune, there is not enough space available for roads. At the same time, vehicles are also increasing, resulting in the burgeoning traffic congestion,” Patil said.

Road safety activist Chandmal Parmar said pedestrians are not safe on city roads.

More News: dnaindia

Cloudy conditions prevailing in the city and Maharashtra are a result of the pro-rainfall weather conditions in the northern parts of the country, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) here on Wednesday, adding that there is a possibility of rainfall over the next 48 hours. The city is also experiencing cold conditions with the maximum temperature dipping two degrees below normal on Wednesday.

For the last few days, the city had been experiencing high day temperatures and low night temperatures. But the situation has changed since Monday, when cold weather conditions along with a cold breeze began to be witnessed in the city. On Wednesday, the day temperature was two degrees below normal at 29.6 degrees Celsius.

“Though rainfall during the winter season is not very normal, it also cannot be termed as wholly abnormal, since there have been instances of rainfall during the winter in the past,” the IMD officials said. As per the IMD’s forecast for Pune, “Light rain may occur in some areas, while the skies will be partly cloudy over the next 48 hours.”

The induced cyclonic circulation over Haryana and neighbouring areas now lies over Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh and the neighbouring areas,” the IMD officials said. Also, the western disturbance as an upper air cyclonic circulation extending up to mid-tropospheric levels over Jammu and Kashmir and neighbouring areas persists.

More News: timesofindia