Citing fund crunch owing to rampant corrupt practices among engineers with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and red tapism, 10 developers involved in SRA redevelopment scheme in the city have
Citing fund crunch owing to rampant corrupt practices among engineers with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and red tapism, 10 developers involved in SRA redevelopment scheme in the city have approached the state government asking it to fund their incomplete or ongoing SRA redevelopment schemes.
In exchange, the developers are promising to hand over the housing stock in the affordable housing segment to the state government. The Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Limited (SPPL), a state government housing agency, had mooted a model in January 2016, where it would fund developers in the city by offering loans up to '500 crore in return for housing stock. It is said the move would create a stock of affordable homes in the city.
The government agency in exchange for the loan amount would ask these developers to hand over a percentage of their commercially exploitable flats to the SPPL, which would have to be smaller in size compared to the usual sizes of luxurious flats in the commercially exploitable segment, also known as sale component.
“We are exploring these model currently where we have received 10 proposals and the proposals by the developers includes those who have already obtained Letter of Intent (LOI) or IOA (Intimation of Approval) from the SRA and are stuck with the project owing to lack of finance,” said Debashish Chakrabarty, managing director, SPPL.
“Here we would act as an handholding agency and get funds for the private developers from the National Housing Bank (NHB) and Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (Hudco),” Mr Chakrabarty added.
Hudco and NHB both are Central government-funded agencies, which provides funds to government agencies for housing projects all over India. Hudco was also involved in giving funds via loan to private developers, but the practice was stopped owing to various developers not honouring their loans to Hudco.
The move to fund private developers is expected to also boost the process of slum redevelopment in the city.
The funds will be released in phases depending on how much the project progresses. “For now, the proposals are from developers who have their project in the eastern and western suburbs,” added Mr Chakrbarty.
