Redeveloping: the Need of the Hour

REDEVELOPING: THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Madhya Pradesh

Century Golden Brick Awards 2011

COMMUNICATION FEATURE  /  APR 2011

Demolishing and reconstructing old buildings is commonplace today. Edifice Erection Pvt Ltd throws light on the process of redevelopment and the players involved.

Redevelopment typically involves collaborating with a developer who constructs and hands over the new building free of cost, and at the same time, makes profits by utilising the balance plot potential, where additional flats and shops can be constructed. Of course, such actions require the approval of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).

Durgesh Kothari, Architect, Edifice Erection Pvt Ltd comments, “With the scarcity of land in cities like Mumbai, existing constructions are dilapidating. Further, with the change in building designs and construction norms, redevelopment is becoming the need of the hour.”

The state co-operative department recently issued guidelines for societies under Section 79 (A) of the Maharashtra Co-operatives Act, 1960, thus ensuring transparency in societies seeking redevelopment. Accordingly, a redevelopment scheme must be approved by the general body comprising the co-operatives commissioner and CIDCO chairman, pursuant to a deep study of complaints, only if three-fourths of the society members are present. Also, according to an important feature in the guidelines, the special general body can approve a bid only in the presence of the registrar, and the entire proceedings must be video-recorded.

The agreement must be signed on a carpet-area basis, and once accepted, cannot be revised. The bidder must give a bank guarantee of 20 per cent of the total project cost and cannot leave the project incomplete. Most importantly, if for some reason, he is unable to complete it, he cannot sell the agreement to another developer. Otherwise, he must complete the project within two or three years. “Another player is the project management consultant who acts as the communicator between housing society members and developers,” says Utkarsh Jani, Project Management Consultant, Edifice Erection Pvt Ltd.

Burdened with bitterness and constant complaints of high-handedness and corruption against management committees, the government issued these guidelines in the interest of both society members and developers.