In a move to speed up construction projects and to achieve a target of housing for all by 2022, housing projects up to 1,50,000 square metres have been exempted from “separate environment clearance” from the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change in the national Capital, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday. Under the new norms, the environmental clearance will now be issued in an integrated manner along with the building permission under building bylaws for all building constructions up to 1,50,000 sqm built-up area.
The housing project will now get simultaneous building permission and environmental clearance from local bodies — Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and the three Municipal Corporations in their areas of jurisdiction. The move allows smaller projects to meet environmental conditions through a “self-declaration” process. The notification was issued by the Ministry on Monday.
While addressing a Press conference on his Ministry’s achievements in the last three years, Naidu also claimed that per capita investment of Rs15,475 has so far been approved during 2014-17 under new urban missions for a five-year period. This is 315 per cent of Rs4,918 approved in the earlier ten years, he said. A total investment of Rs4,13,475 crore has so far been approved for improving basic urban infrastructure. This is 350 per cent of Rs1,18,034 crore approved under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). To bring in investment in the sector, the Government has so far approved central assistance of Rs1,44,833 crore as against only Rs53,680 crore during the earlier ten years, he said.
Currently, all building and construction up to 1,50,000 sq metre are subject to environmental clearance given by the State-level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SlEIA).
The Centre had in December 2016 notified that the construction projects up to 1,50,000 sq metre would be cleared by local bodies in Delhi and said that the State will forward the proposed changes in the building bylaws and rules to the Ministry of environment for approval. At the time of issuing the notification last year, the Government had also said it will come into effect after States made required changes in their building by laws in consultation with the environment ministry.
The Minister said that Delhi and Mumbai have worked overtime to introduce integrated, simplified common online application and approval mechanism for building plans. As a result, approval time has come down to 14 days from 29 days in Delhi, and 19 days from 42 days in Mumbai.
The Minister further said that new guidelines will soon be issued to enable private investments in affordable housing even on private lands under affordable housing in partnership component of Prime Minister Awas Yojna (Urban) under which only public sector partnership is allowed so far.
Naidu said Pune is all set to issue Municipal Bonds and get listed with BSE on June 22 and 17 cities have already appointed Transaction Advisors to do so.
“Construction of 20,25,573 affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor has been approved in this short period as against only 12,40,904 approved during the earlier 10 years. A total of 6,737 projects (Detailed Project Reports) were approved since 2014 which is 215 per cent of 3,138 projects cleared during the previous ten years. For the first time in the country, 500 cities and towns are undertaking well thought-out interventions for improving urban infrastructure under Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and another 60 identified under Smart City Mission so far,” the Minister added.
“748 cities have formulated the much desired Master Plans, 172 cities have reported 90 per cent collection of Property Tax,” he said.