Paid FSI will boost real estate: Builders

The debate is on in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to introduce paid Floor Space Index (FSI) instead of Transfer if Development Rights (TDR) in the new Development Plan of the city and this proposition is getting thumbs up from the developers' community. Not only this, the PMC Standing Committee Chairman Ganesh Bidkar, too, admitted that the PMC has seen a lot of scams under TDR policy.

Rohit Gera, joint managing director with Gera Developments, said, "Process to generate TDR is cumbersome, takes lot of time and creates an overall fluctuation in the market. Paid FSI on the other hand is a simpler process. It smoothly facilitates the process of demand and supply of property. In the fringe villages, where most of the real estate development is now taking place, if paid FSI is introduced, supply of houses will increase and prices will automatically come down, directly affecting the end-buyer. PMC too will rake in healthy revenue if paid FSI is implemented."u00a0

According to Satish Magar, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Pune chapter, TDR availability is already very low in the city. "There have been cases when real estate prices touched astronomical prices because of TDR. Paid FSI can keep a check on this and the common man will be able to buy an affordable house."

Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal, however, was in favour of TDRs. "The concept of TDR is not faulty but the problem lies with its implementation. If it is implemented and used in a systematic manner, its ill-effects can always be countered." Rajpal further added that several Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) schemes have been successfully implemented because of TDR along with several development plans of the PMC and the state government," said Rajpal.

Leader of the House Nilesh Nikam and Congress leader Abhay Chhajed said both TDR and paid FSI had their pros and cons. "Instead of making it a political issue, it should be made administrative issue", said Nikam.