CREDAI sets on Mission Transparency for Realty Ind.

New team to work for improved coordination with Central & State Governments§ Calls for transparency in Govt. clearances§ Foot print to cover tier II and III cities and towns
MUMBAI, March 15, 2011: With transparency high on agenda, CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India) has embarked on a mission to ensure that the industry gets a fair image.

Mr Lalitkumar Jain, the newly elected national president of CREDAI, today said: “We want to ensure total transparency at developer and the government levels.”

He explained that real estate is being blamed as one of the major industries in the country that is faced with the issues of transparency. “Sad though, the developer community is at the receiving end. In fact, we are the oppressed ones and victims of red-tapism in many cases. The various approvals, from land purchase to building plans, take anywhere between two to three years.”

“We need to obtain some 40 NOCs (No objection certificates) from different departments live like revenue, demarcation, environment, high-rise committees, apart from the civic bodies,” he pointed out.

The new team at CREDAI wishes to focus on issues of transparency even in government functioning, and it has a concrete suggestion by which the issue can be addressed. “We are seeking a comprehensive check list for all the issues those are examined by respective departments. With the application of IT tools we can submit and verify the proposals at one go,” he said.

Scrutiny officers can be trained to scrutinize and keep check on any violations. This, Of course, requires an initiative by urban development ministry which in turn will have to coordinate with various central and state government departments for making it a success. Everybody, from the government to the industry to the consumer, all will benefit if it is implemented.

Pointing out that efficient government machinery can help reduce costs and ultimately benefit the end consumer, Mr Jain said the cost of funding which is to the tune of 40 to 60 pc of land cost and the expenditure on various approvals works out to 4% to 10% of the project cost.

CREDAI will also launch a drive to spread its branches to the hitherto uncovered areas and impress upon the developer community across the country to adhere to a code of conduct and set up consumer grievance cells to attend to all complaints. With this, the organization hopes to attend to the issues relating to tier II and III cities and towns.
Post liberalization, India has progressed a lot on many fronts and it is time that even the real estate sector gets fruits of the end of the License Raj, he said.

On the Union Budget proposals, he said CREDAI is working on a comprehensive memorandum to be submitted to the Finance Minister. “We have sought meeting with the Honourable Finance minister as the sector has many issues to discuss.”