Windows which delay project launches and escalate home prices

DELHI-NCR: Believe it or not, for a big housing project to become a reality, it takes 57 different approvals from the state and central government and visits to as many numbers of windows of different departments.

Needless to say, the multiple windows approval system leads to inordinate delay in launching of project and so, the price escalation. The approval process that includes the No Objection Certificates (NoC) and licences, takes about two to three years to complete and if you get stuck at some point then there is no limit.

However, getting stuck is a different issue where the developer might have some problem in the project but in ideal conditions it takes a lot of time for a project to get through. Should the process be simpler and uniform, the cost per unit in a real estate project would come down by 20-30 percent," says R K Arora, chairman and managing director, Supertech Group.

A Confederation of Real Estate Estate Developer's Association (CREDAI) report also says that on an average it takes 2-3 years to start a project after the land is acquired; by this time the cost of land rises by 24 to 30 percent due to hefty interest payments as bank loans are not available for procuring important raw material in this sector. The cost of which ultimately gets passed on to the customer.

For instance, if you had booked a 1,150 sq ft 2 BHK flat at Rs 3,200 per sq ft in one of those swanky real estate projects in NCR you would have saved about Rs 1,10,400 or paid three EMIs lesser at standard home loan interest rates if the project had not been approved according to the present system.
To name a few, currently a realtor has to seek approvals from National Highway Authority of India, fire department, pollution department, ministry of environment, electricity department, Airports Authority of India, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Mines, Central Ground Water Board, Directorate General Civial Aviation among many other sub-departments.

Dr Ranjeet Mehta, secretary, Housing Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry offers, "In some states conversion of land also has to be done and NoC (No Objection Certificate) has to be taken as agricultural land needs to be converted for commercial use."

Several other developers rue the poor land acquisition laws in the country due to which most real estate projects get affected. "The Noida Extension issue where foul play by the authorities led to almost all stakeholders facing bad consequences was a result of the poor land acquisition laws that we have failed to change till date," says a developer who refuses to be named.


Many builders and developers have mulled a single window clearance system that would cut down the approval process to six-eight weeks.

"Ideally, we would prefer a single window clearance mechanism. This would help the real estate sector in many ways than one. We say this as a win-all method as the resultant costs will help us and the buyers as well," added R K Arora from Supertech.