Chandigarh, January 5:
Sailing through the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department has continued its development agenda by accomplishing major housing and development projects across the state. The state government had formulated a New Land Pooling policy, under which in residential sector 1000 Sq Yds Residential and 200 Sq Yds. Commercial developed land shall be offered in lieu of 1 acre land and for industrial sectors, 1100 Sq Yds Industrial and 200 Sq Yds commercial developed land to be offered in exchange of 1 acre of land. Process to acquire 1700 acres land for Aerotropolis in last leg and award would be announced soon. Two new Industrial sectors 101-103 have been taken up on 500 acres.
While highlighting these developments during a press conference here at Punjab Bhawan today, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister Mr. Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria said that Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government had constructed and handed over 176 (G+3) EWS flats at Hajimajra village in Patiala, besides acquiring 1100 acres of land at Rajpura, 1000 acres at Ludhiana and 1500 acres PSPCL land for setting-up Industrial parks.
He further informed that the development authorities also held successful E-auctions in 2020 and got very good response from the public by fetching Rs. 1000 crore. Housing Projects were also allowed on 50 acres and affordable in 25 acres in New Chandigarh, he added.
Mr. Sarkaria said that the department also offered various reliefs to developers and allottees in view of Covid-19 pandemic which included extension of construction period, interest waiver for auctioned properties, rescheduling of some installments. He added that non construction fee has also been halved all over Punjab to lessen burden on allottees.
The cabinet minister said that the state government has also notified New Affordable Housing Policy to prevent mushrooming of unauthorized colonies and relaxations have been offered and the developer is supposed to keep 8% area under Parks, 4% area under community centre and 25 feet road under the policy. He said that a special opportunity under Amnesty Scheme for developers has also been given to developers who had defaulted in payment of their EDC and other charges which got good response in which Post dated cheques of around Rs.900 Crore have been received.
The Minister also informed that restructuring of the Department of Housing has been done for better regulation and efficiency. He said that End to end computerization of Estate Office, Layout Approval and GPS marking of properties has been undertaken to be completed in 6 months. The department has also started a 100% online CLU for which a dedicated portal has been prepared.
