Govt Finalises New Bill on Land Acquisition

To take on the discontentment against land acquisition process, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has cleared a draft bill for public comments. The ministers land acquisition and rehabilitation bill will be up on the ministry website just a fortnight into his term at Krish Bhawan. The Bill proposes a compensation of more than six times the circle rate of land, acquired for industrial and real estate projects. This is in line with the recomendations of the National Advisory Council but given the time constraint is unlikely to be cleared by Parliament in the next monsoon session. The Bill sticks to the NAC script in its other major recommendations which is mandatory consent for atleast 80% of the affected people as a pre-requisite for commencing land acquisition. Since land is a concurrent subject, the Act will however have only an advisory status unless accepted by the state legislatures. It would be the state government who would decide on whether the private sector or the state government, who would initiate land acquisition drive, an official said. The new bill also proposes compliance with all existing laws on tribal welfare. The bill has also suggested inflation linked annuity to those who had given up their land. The bill also suggests that if the acquired land belongs to a tribal person, then an additional compensation would have to be worked out. Besides the Bill would also have separate norms for land acquired around urban and rural areas. After a final meeting with National Advisory Council (NAC) members and other key ministry officials on Wednesday, Jairam gave the final touch to the bill which for the first time combines both land acquisition and rehabilitation under one law. This would be the second attempt by the UPA government to formulate a national policy on land acquisition after series of violence protests against forceful occupation of land for industries were reported from Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and other states in the last few years. Earlier the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 were passed by the Lok Sabha in February 2009 and had been tabled in the Rajya Sabha subsequently. However, both bills lapsed with the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha.

Greater Noida Land Row: GNIDA, Builders Approach Farmers for Negotiation

With the Allahabad High Court setting August 12 as the deadline for the stakeholders in the Greater Noida land row, the Greater Noida Authority (GNIDA) and builders on Wednesday initiated the first round of negotiations with farmers offering them annuity, cash incentive and other sops. The Authority conducted talks with the affected farmers and their leaders and discussed the new rehabilitation policy and benefits. Speaking to reporters, GNIDA CEO Rama Raman said that they would like to have negotiation talks starting from Patwari village. He also said that there are two approaches to deal with the problem, which is either directly negotiations with the impacted farmers or their representatives. He also highlighted that the authority is also open to give flexible norms for the farmers to return the compensation that they have taken for the abadi (settlement) land via

easy installments etc as they are ready to return back the abadi land back to the farmers. The authority also showed interest in giving the 6 per cent of the land acquired for the development for which the authority will be working out respective modalities. Apart from this, Raman also communicated that the authority is also working out details to give a better compensation for the farmers for the land they had acquired. The builders whose projects now face an uncertain future have deputed their agents to contact the farmers. Builders have offered Rs 2,000 to 3,000 per sq mt of additional amount.

Major Blow for Co-op flat Owners as SC Orders Individual Registration of Flats
Cooperative housing societies in Noida were dealt a major blow on Wednesday, as Supreme Court ordered individual registration of their flats as per the prevailing circle rates. According to the Uttar Pradesh stamp department, the judgment would affect around 15,000 flat owners and leave the government richer by roughly Rs 100 crore. A special bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and HS Bedi passed the direction while dismissing applications by Army Welfare Housing Organisation and others challenging the Noida Authoritys decision to recover stamp duty on the basis of current rates. According to counsel Abha Sharma appearing for several flat owners, the decision would cause a liability ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh in stamp duty, which was the original cost of construction of houses in 1992. The high registration fees are a result of the real estate boom of the last decade. For instance, a three-bedroom flat in Noida that cost Rs 11 lakh just 10 years ago now costs at least Rs 60 lakh. Shaken by the order, the affected societies on Wednesday said they would appeal to the court to review its decision. The housing societies that stand affected by this judgement will file a curative petition with the apex court, said Rajiv Satyakam, secretary of the federation of Sector 62 RWAs. Around 55 cooperative housing societies, including Prime Ministers Office Cooperative Housing Society, come within the ambit of this federation. The registration amount of individual flats would vary across Noida, as circle rates of posh colonies in the city are higher. If owners fail to register their houses within the stipulated deadline of six months, Noida Authority will impose penalty on them. Speaking to TOI, revenue controller of the Uttar Pradesh stamp department, Durgesh Kumar Saxena, said there are 150 societies in the district of Gautam Budh Nagar and about 25,000 flat owners. However, only 40% owners in the district have got their properties registered, said Saxena. Saxena also said the societies registered under Indian Societies Registration Act would have to pay 5% duty whereas those societies that are registered under Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Housing Society Act are bound to pay 2.5% duty. Circle rates for each sector in Noida have been uploaded on the official website of Gautam Budh Nagar district. Flat owners would have to register their properties as per these circle rates. The apex court had on September 10 given six months to members of housing societies for execution of the tripartite deeds (among authorities, societies and allottees) on the basis of normal stamp duty without charging any extra amount or penalty. The bench had ordered that the deeds shall be executed before March 9, failing which a daily penalty of Rs 100 shall be imposed on each flat owner. However, the flat owners moved fresh applications complaining that the authorities were recovering the stamp duty on the basis of the present market rates, which had increased phenomenally, whereas the original constructions were made in 1992.

Shriram Properties Plans Expansion across India with Hospitality & Logistics Businesses

After Shriram Properties Ltd recently secured a $100 million (Rs 440 crore) investment from private equity (PE) firm TPG Capital, in one of the largest such deals in Indias real estate sector, the Bangalore-based company is working on expanding across India with two new businesses hospitality and logistics. The company, so far focused on residential developments in southern India, will deploy most of the new money in setting up two wholly owned subsidiaries as it diversifies its portfolio, managing director M. Murali, told Mint. It will spend the balance on buying about 600 acres of land in the next 18 months to expand its real estate business in southern India. Shriram Properties, part of the Rs 25,000 crore Shriram Group, is one of the few cash-rich developers in the depressed sector, even after it decided to defer a share sale. We are now putting together teams for warehousing and hospitality and looking for land parcels between 20-50 acres each for our real estate business, said Murali. We will also buy distressed assets at a discount for the hospitality business, instead of developing hotels ourselves, and explore such opportunities in the office space and residential space too. So far, Shriram Properties, which has a 1,000-acre land bank, has received Rs 936 crore of PE investments for its various projects. The latest deal was at the company level. Before TPG, Walton Street Capital had invested in Shriram Properties in 2007. Murali didnt give details. TPG Capital has invested Rs 325 crore in Shriram Properties in the first phase of funding and will give the balance before March. Shriram Properties currently has 6.5 million sq. ft of space under development and plans to add 3.6 million sq. ft with its new projects this fiscal year.

SC Verdict Benefiting Unitech & Parsvanaths Noida Based Projects

The Supreme Courts verdict upholding the denotification of 156 hectares of land allotted for residential development to developers in Greater Noida has come as a blessing in disguise for realty majors including Unitech and Parsvnath, which are seeing upswing in enquiries since trouble began in this area in May this year. Unitech and Parsvnath, which do not have projects in Noida Extension, have seen sales and enquiries rising for their projects in adjoining areas as buyers are now scouting for options elsewhere. It has come as a handy opportunity for Unitech whose budget brand Unihomes is offering products at a higher range than Noida Extension. A Unitech spokesperson said, With specific reference to Unihomes in Noida, in the last few days, the customer queries for Unihomes has increased almost five times and the query translation into sales is expected to be strong. The price in Unihomes is almost 10-20 per cent higher than those at NOIDA extension. Parsvnath Developers, another North-based developer active in the National Capital Region (NCR), too, is experiencing changing priorities of consumers. For the buyers, its like once bitten twice shy. People as of now are stressing on clear titles and clean land record before investing, said a Parsvnath official. The realtor is developing three projects in Ghaziabad. It has completed the structure of Regalia and Sterling, while bookings are still going on in Exotica, where 1,500 units are being offered.