Letters: Focusing right

It was nice to read the two articles by Shubhomoy Bhattacharjee, “Why cheaper housing is the elephant in the room” (February 27) and “Building on the middle class dream” (March 1), as part of the series on affordable reading, the dream project of the Narendra Modi government. The fact that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is making every effort to make the project successful is well known. 

Most writing on affordable housing usually does not focus on issues such as land pricing, infrastructure development and connectivity issues. The two articles cite the issues, highlight the need to focus on reality of the real estate sector and the steps needed to achieve success.

I wish Bhattacharjee had written more about the statutory approvals required for real estate projects. At least two dozen approvals are needed; this makes life tough for the industry and even the best planned projects tend to get delayed. 

A single-window clearance, like that in the telecom industry, would go a long way in the real estate sector. While that appears difficult — because land is a state issue requiring several clearances — something needs to be done.

Arbitrary changes to rules with retrospective effect cause delays, like in the case of projects on the banks of the Yamuna or in the Aravalli ranges being stopped for want of environment clearances. Easy access to debt will help. This has been addressed in a small way by adding affordable housing to the infrastructure sector.

I hope these points are included in future reports. These are issues that concern not only affordable housing but also the entire real estate sector.

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