Punjab housing & urban development dept. notifies affordable colony policy
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
To make houses available on affordable prices to the lower and lower middle income families in the state, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department has notified affordable colony policy. The Policy has been formulated to encourage the promoters to opt for small size residential plotted and flatted development, so that affordable plots & houses could be made available to the weaker strata of the society.
Divulging the details, Punjab Housing & Urban Development Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria said that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government is committed to fulfill the housing needs of the residents of the state, especially the economically deprived section, so the government has formulated the affordable colony policy, he added. Moreover, in wake of economic crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic, the need to provide affordable housing to the lower & lower middle income group families had become all the most important.
Notably, the affordable colony policy is applicable to all the areas developed or approved by the Department of Housing & Urban Development, and to residential & mixed land use zones in master plans as well as upto an area of 3 kms around municipal limit situated outside master plan.
Talking about various conditions laid for developing an affordable colony, the Minister said that minimum of 5 acres are required for plotted/mixed plotted colony, while for the purpose of developing group housing exclusively, 2 acres of area is required. For areas under SAS Nagar Master Plan, minimum 25 acres & 10 acres and for New Chandigarh Master Plan minimum 100 acres & 5 acres are required respectively.
Taking into consideration the interests of those, who opt for residing in an affordable colony, Sarkaria said that the state government has laid several conditions to be fulfilled by the promoter interested in setting up such a project. The maximum plot size for construction of affordable houses has been capped at 150 Sq.Yds. While for EWS, it will be 100 Sq.Yds. To cater the recreational needs of the residents, the developer will be required to make adequate provision of parks in the project and a community centre and commercial area shall be kept reserved to fulfil the social & daily needs of the residents. All these facilities have been provisioned in the project to provide modern state of the art living facilities to the residents, said the Minister.
Incentives offered under Affordable Colony Policy
Several incentives have been offered in the policy for the developers, who would volunteer to set up an affordable colony. For instance, the developers will be free to sell the EWS units without restrictions of Punjab Apartment & Property Regulation Act-1995. In the policy, otherwise applicable to setting up of colonies, the developer is required to hand over the EWS houses/ plots to the concerned Special Development Authority for further selling the same. While in case of colonies, normally, the permitted saleable area stands at 55%, developers of an affordable colony will get 60% of the effective site area for development. In case, the colonizer wants to develop Group Housing, the maximum ground coverage will be 35% of effective site area and maximum F.A.R. shall be 1:3 of the effective site area. The developer shall be required to keep 10% of the total number of residential flats reserved for sale as EWS. No density norms shall be applicable to these colonies. For effective implementation of the policy, the power of competent authority to grant licence of these colonies has also been conferred upon DTCP.
July,26,2020
