Construction Mirror Article detail

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), in association with the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), Telangana Builders Federation (TBF), and Telangana Developers Association (TDA), hailed the efforts of A Shanti Kumari, the chief secretary, Government of Telangana, to bring together the heads of more than 20 departments required to facilitate and provide permissions to developers to pursue the real estate development in the state at the Secretariat. 

This meeting, which is reportedly the first of its kind in Telangana for the real estate industry, was convened by the Government of Telangana on CREDAI’s initiative. The purpose of the meeting was to understand the developers’ pain points and explore the possibility of exploring appropriate solutions to the issues, integrating necessary permissions on the TS-BPass platform to improve the ease of doing business in the state.

The high-powered delegation included Arvind Kumar, special chief secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development; Dana Kishore, the managing director of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board; Naveen Mittal, principal secretary, land revenue and registration with additional charge as chief commissioner of land administration, N Satyanarayana, chairperson of the Telangana State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TS RERA), Commissioner GHMC, HMDA, HMWS&SB, GST, chief Executive officer, TS-Bpass, DG – Fire & Disaster Management, MD – TSSPDCL, IG – Stamps and Registration Department, TSIIC, besides Irrigation, Mining, Environment, Pollution Control, Labour and officials from the different Collectorate and Police department. 

The real estate developers were represented by P Ramakrishna Rao, president of CREDAI Hyderabad; Sunil Chandra Reddy, president of NAREDCO, Telangana; G V Rao, president of Telangana Developers Association; C Prabhakar Rao, president of Telangana Builders Federation, G Anand Reddy, vice president of CREDAI Hyderabad, Aditya Gowra, treasurer of CREDAI Hyderabad and Vijay Sai Meka, secretary general of NAREDCO, Telangana.

P Ramakrishna Rao, president of CREDAI Hyderabad, said, “This is a major exercise and shows their concern and eagerness to understand the issues and make an effort to resolve them. Although Telangana is way ahead of other states in adopting systems like TS-Bpass, there are still some issues that need to be resolved to make the system seamless. We have highlighted the issues related to the masterplan, Dharini portal and the delay in approvals caused by the prevailing ambiguity and given suggestions to help streamline the processes further.” 

He also requested GHMC and HMDA to set up technical helpdesks to resolve applicants’ queries, clarify the issues to help a speedy resolution and faster execution. The association also urged the complete interconnection of the TS-Bpass platform with TS RERA platforms to reflect statutory project approvals to streamline the process and hasten project approvals. 

“The TS Government officials were receptive of our concerns and the representatives have listed down the issues. We hope to see positive progress in the time to come helping further improve the business environment in the state,” Rao added.

Sunil Chandra Reddy, president of NAREDCO, Telangana, stated that to help the city grow and accommodate the rapidly growing population, the government has taken up several initiatives to streamline the approval process and speed up the development. Despite all the efforts, some issues still need to be addressed to ease the process further. 

“As a case to consider, Police NOC is essential for malls and multiplexes; as many as 11 approvals are required at the beginning of the project and before starting the operations. We request the department to relook at the same and develop a process for streamlining. Similarly, we would also request the appointment of a dedicated officer to look into issues related to the Dharani Portal and technical aspects, matters and concerns of the applicants to ease and resolve the issues faster,” Reddy said.

Adding to this, G V Rao, president of the Telangana Developers Association, pointed out that there are no stormwater drains and sewer networks in many parts of new developments. There is always a huge amount of stormwater and it is still being determined where it shall be discharged. 

Some of the projects are inundated with excess stormwater. The water cannot be harvested or recharged with the rain intensity. Also, there is a huge amount of excess recycled water even after using flushing and irrigation. This water cannot be even recharged to the ground. There is no way to discharge this water. 

Rao requested the department to look at the problem and suggest a way forward. Also, there is a condition for solar PV and hot water systems to be provided for more than 100 residential units for all projects. But the capacity needs to be indicated. 

Also, solar hot water for high-rise residential projects is not a feasible option. The ECBC recommends 20% of the required hot water from the solar system. It is, first of all, difficult to plan for high rises with limited roof top availability and also the requirement of recirculation pumps etc. Hence instead of Solar hot water, Solar PV of capacity based on a percentage of Roof coverage may be suggested,” Rao stated.

C Prabhakar Rao, president of Telangana Builders Federation, also raised the concern to make the TS-BPass more inclusive by ensuring the required approvals for borewells, temporary electricity connections etc. are issued along with the building permission. He also requested the department to look at the issue of the loss to every stakeholder towards a 10% mortgage. 

“It leads to the loss of GST revenue as the units are sold post receipt of OC, loss of bank funding blocking valuable capital for the builder and difficulty of selling these odd units released post receipt of OC. We hope if the issues raised to the different departments are taken up on priority and resolved appropriately, it will help make doing business easier,” he claimed.