AMITY UNIVERSITY KOLKATA

AMITY LAW SCHOOL

REAL ESTATE LAW (LAW474) ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC-​ The effect of Environmental Pollution on Real Estate
development in India
PRESENTED BY:

NAME- ​Ankush Majumdar

​COURSE- ​B.A.,L.L.B(H), Semester- 7
SESSION: ​2017- 2022
SECTION- ​‘A’

SUBMITTED TO:
Ms. Koyel Roy
 CONTENT:

Page No.

1)INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………..……..3

2) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………………………...3

3) REASON TO CONTROL AIR POLLUTION ....……………………..…………………….……..3

4) EFFECT OF AIR POLLUTION IN WEST BENGAL ………...…...………………………..…....4

5) PREVENTIVE MEASURES ADOPTED BY NCR ……..…...……....………………………..…..4

6) EFFECT OF POLLUTION ON REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT OF OTHER STATES …..4-5

7) LOOPHOLES IN THE PART OF DEVELOPERS …………………………...………………......5

8) WHAT DEVELOPERS CAN DO? ………………………………………………………………...5-6

11) CONCLUSION…………………………………..………………………………….……………...6
Introduction

Air contamination has become a difficult issue for city dwellers. As indicated by the appraisals by Lancet
Commission on Pollution and Health, air contamination kills about 6.5 million individuals every year worldwide
while all types of contamination cost the worldwide economy a yearly $4.6 trillion. Air contamination abbreviates
the future of individuals in the city by 6.3 years and just one out of 10 individuals live in a city that follows World
Health Organization's air quality standards.​1

A year or two prior, the key boundaries that a homebuyer looked at to settle on a purchase decision incorporated
the value, the connectivity, the area and the property. However, there is another expansion to the rundown
contamination levels in the region.

Research Methodology

This assignment is an exploratory type research and based on the secondary data & information from the
following sources, Research journal available online, Article published in various websites & blogs.

Reason to control air pollution

Air pollution is a grave risk to human health that affects nearly everyone in the world and nearly every organ in the
body. Fortunately, it is largely a preventable risk. Reducing pollution at its source can have a rapid and substantial
impact on health. Within a few weeks, respiratory and irritation symptoms, such as shortness of breath, cough,
phlegm, and sore throat, disappear; school absenteeism, clinic visits, hospitalizations, premature births,
cardiovascular illness and death, and all-cause mortality decrease significantly. The interventions are
cost-effective. Reducing factors causing air pollution and climate change have strong co benefits. Although regions
with high air pollution have the greatest potential for health benefits, health improvements continue to be
associated with pollution decreases even below international standards. The large response to and short time
needed for benefits of these interventions emphasize the urgency of improving global air quality and the
importance of increasing efforts to reduce pollution at local levels.

1
Prashant Thakur, ​Does pollution affect demand for real estate in Delhi-NCR? Not really, CNBC, (September 23,
2020, 4:00 PM),
https://www.cnbctv18.com/real-estate/does-pollution-affect-demand-for-real-estate-in-delhi-ncr-not-really-472676
1.htm
Effect of Air pollution in West Bengal

As indicated by news reports, hospitals in the city have enrolled very nearly a 20% ascent in situations where
patients are grumbling of asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), dry cough and
different issues identified with breathing trouble and obstruction. In fact, doctors claim that inhabitants with no
history or presence of lung issue or disease are likewise joining the OPD line. The ascent in AQI levels is
straightforwardly corresponding to inhabitants with breath grievances. The post-festival period from October to
January 2020 has seen a gigantic increment in asthma and COPD protests since 2016. Kolkata's contamination
prompted impacts that have tragically become a yearly undertaking.​2

Preventive measures adopted by NCR

Pollution directly affects real estate. Recently, when the pollution came to 'hazardous' levels in the national capital
region(NCR), the National Green Tribunal (NGT) requested a prohibition on construction in the locale for a couple
of days. Bans like these, consistently, affect the developers' business. Their conveyance timelines get influenced,
having an rippling impact causing project delays.

Not simply project delays, pollution can, going further, sway the property prices of an area adversely. It is a given
that once homebuyers make pollution levels a significant part of their purchasing choice, they will favor zones
where pollution levels are low. "Property costs are a result of demand and supply. In case homebuyers move away
from a territory with high pollution levels, the property prices of that area will endure as the interest falls.

Effect of pollution on real estate development of other States

Mumbai unerringly encounters floods during the storms, yet property costs there stayed impenetrable to this annual
event. Some ongoing alarming research cautions that enormous coastal chunks of Mumbai will be forever
immersed by 2050 because of the rising ocean levels. In spite of this, ventures continue pouring in - the city's real
estate market doesn't back off by virtue of environmental factors. There is essentially a lot in question in the
nation's monetary capital.​3

2
NK Realtors, ​How Pollution in Kolkata is Affecting the Health of its Residents, (September 23, 2020, 3:30 PM),
https://www.nkrealtors.com/blog/pollution-in-kolkata-affecting-health-residents/
3
Prashant Thakur, ​Does pollution affect demand for real estate in Delhi-NCR? Not really, CNBC, (September 26,
2020, 8:00 PM),
Obviously, flooding, in the long run, turns into a hard reality which is difficult to disregard - as seen in Chennai,
where numerous previously aspirational beachfront properties abruptly lost an incentive after they were immersed
by tsunami-invoked tidal waves.

Loopholes in the part of developers

Numerous new areas are presently being developed for dwelling. This implies there are an enormous number of
infrastructural advances happening in these localities, making an ideal circumstance for rise in pollution because of
dust. Additionally, while big developers are able to employ construction organizations that use top tier construction
techniques that don't trouble nature, the small developers are as yet stuck on traditional construction practises.
These traditional practices sway the air quality unfavorably.

Developers themselves appear to be the prime reason behind why their business may endure because of air
pollution.

What developers can do?

In times when development is at its pinnacle the whole way across the nation, the construction ban could be a
prevention in accomplishing the objective of housing for all by 2022. So as to bring down the effect of construction
on nature, the government as of late presented 16 new-age technology. Some of them incorporate precast and
prefab. "A building site will consistently have high levels of PM10 originating from materials, for example,
concrete, wood and others. So, it gets imperative for a developer to keep the area secured with tarpaulin.
On January 30, 2020, the ​State of West Bengal issued guidelines regarding the issues for preventing rise in
pollution due to the construction process. Buildings coming up in New Town may not get the completion
certificate (CC) if the structures are not covered in cloth, jute or some other residue preventive material during
development. The contractual workers concerned may likewise be given stop-construction notices in the event that
they neglect to cling to the directions. In bid to arrest the spread of dust and fall of rubble on the road, the New
Town Kolkata Development Authority has chosen to incorporate such a statement in its building plan sanction
rules and set up the warning on its site soon.

https://www.cnbctv18.com/real-estate/does-pollution-affect-demand-for-real-estate-in-delhi-ncr-not-really-472676
1.htm
During a board meeting of the NKDA on January 27, 2020, an exceptional resolution was received to address the
issue, perceiving the way that the construction dust and debris were unquestionably large contaminations that
affected the individuals living in the area. Along these lines, a NKDA official stated, the condition for setting up a
dust defensive cover would be presented in the building plan sanction permit. "The development region or
structures ought to be wrapped by fabric or jute or other dust secured material to go about as dust barriers. Actions
appropriate for decrease of dust and elimination of possibility of debris or dust outside own property will likewise
be taken.​4

Conclusion

Until recently contamination was not one of the prime standards while choosing a property. Nonetheless, with
rising contamination levels turning into a regular phenomenon, homebuyers are presently getting sensitive about it.
They are asking inquiries about contamination in a specific region they need to invest into.
The homebuyers are not yet ready to settle on a choice keeping contamination as a key parameter. It is because the
information accessible isn't granular for every region. However,times when there will be sufficient contamination
estimating stations, the numbers will assist homebuyers with settling on a choice.
On the other hand the developers shall continue to be concerned with the proper construction techniques in order to
prevent spread of pollution in the respective and the adjacent areas to it.
Therefore, the more they follow up with the norms issued by the respective authorities the less pollution will be
generated from the construction and thus it may not affect their business and rise in the demand for the land.

4
TNN,​ ​West Bengal: No CC for New Town buildings left uncovered during construction, Times of India,
(September 17, 2020, 7:43 PM),
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/no-cc-for-new-town-buildings-left-uncovered-during-construction/
articleshow/73746434.cms