The Environment Ministry has proposed to liberalise some of the environmental norms related to real estate industry. In the latest of a series of draft notifications on the subject, the Ministry has proposed integrating environmental conditions with building permissions granted by local authorities under state specific land laws. The draft notification has been put up in public domain for the comments of the stakeholders.
As per the Ministry notification, "The Central Government is working for ensuring Ease of Doing Responsible Business." The notification also said that the rules were being amended to streamline permissions , under the "scheme of Housing for all by 2022 with an objective of making available of affordable housing to weaker section in urban area has ambitious target." But the exemption would not just be applicable for the housing of weaker section, but for all kind of real estate projects including malls, entertainment centres and commercial buildings.
According to the current norms, building and construction projects with built-up area over 20,000 square metres and above require green clearances. However, in the proposed system, three categories of buildings viz. 5,000-20,000 sq. metres, 20,000-50,000 sq. metres and 50,000-150,000 sq. metres-are being drawn up where standard conditions are slightly stricter for larger buildings than smaller ones. The sources reasoned out the changes saying, this would thus, cover a much wider section of the construction sector.
The proposal further says, "states adopting these objective and monitorable environmental conditions in their building bye-laws and relevant laws and incorporating these conditions in the approval given for building construction making it legally enforceable shall not require a separate environmental clearance for individual buildings."
In other words, the ministry proposed integrating environmental conditions with building permissions granted by local authorities under state-specific land laws, clarified the sources.
However, the proposed relaxation will not result in taking the construction sector out of NGT's purview or the ambit of the Environment Protection Act, said the sources.