Maharashtra CM for amending TDR rules in Mumbai

If voted to power in the coming civic elections here, the Congress-led government in Maharashtra plans to amend the policy on transfer of development rights (TDR) in Mumbai.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the rules needed amending to bring in transparency, certainty and less discretion. The objective is also to stop cartelisation in these rights, which had led to a rise in TDR prices to a record Rs 3,000 per sq ft last year. These are now between Rs 1,800 and 2,300 per sq ft.

TDR means if a property developer surrenders a land lot and offers to build homes free of cost for slum dwellers or those displaced due to infrastructural projects, he gets proportionate property development rights, which are tradeable, north of that plot. TDR was to be an incentive for builders to construct homes for the poor.

The government and industry sources estimate Mumbai’s TDR market at Rs 2,000 crore annually. It is a market-driven commodity and the TDR price in 2000 was Rs 600 per sq ft, peaking to Rs 3,500-4,000 per sq ft in 2006-07.

Last month, the government issued a notification on 33 per cent additional floor space index, reducing demand for TDR. Chief minister Chavan told Business Standard: “I am keen to bring in sanity and transparency in Mumbai’s realty sector. I am not against builders and developers and the realty sector in general. I am against the tendency of making disproportionate benefits and also against the unholy nexus between politicians and realty players.”

Chavan said since he became chief minister in November 2010, the government had taken various decisions in this regard. These include establishing a regulator for the housing sector, reservation for the poor in housing complexes and amendments to the development control rules for promoting a level set of rules. He added redevelopment of the massive Dharavi slum was given a needed push.