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West Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta on Friday reiterated the state governments intent to remove the decades-old urban land ceiling law, calling it an impediment to development, as he sought greater participation from organised real estate developers in the state.
Addressing the 24th CREDAI NATCON in Kolkata, Dasgupta said some laws dating back to the 1970s continued to hold back development even though they had been scrapped elsewhere in the country. One of them is something called the urban land ceiling. It is an impediment and a deterrent to development. It has to go, he said. Dasgupta also said land-related issues in rural areas would need to be addressed as West Bengal expands factories, logistics facilities and technology parks. These are basically impediments to growth. They will have to also be overcome with a measure of humanness and a degree of generosity, perhaps, but they have to go, he said. The Finance Minister said Kolkata and West Bengal offered significant opportunities for redevelopment and modernisation after years of limited investment in housing and urban infrastructure. In a media interaction on the sidelines of the event, he stressed the need for stronger regulation and greater participation by organised developers. We need an organised system, we need accountability, we need the law. We need the RERA to be put into full operation here, Dasgupta said. He added that organised developers could play an important role in renewing Kolkatas ageing housing stock, while saying businesses primarily needed peace, law and order and efficient and impartial administration rather than specific incentives. CREDAI Chairman Boman Irani said redevelopment would be important for Kolkata and highlighted the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the real estate sector. Irani said AI was already being used in customer interaction and building design, and claimed work that earlier took consultants three-and-a-half to four weeks could now be completed in about three-and-a-half to four hours, followed by human checks. CREDAI President Shekhar Patel, meanwhile, said Kolkatas real estate market had gained momentum over the past year. He said sales in the first half of the year had already reached around 70 per cent of the previous years full-year level. So I think Kolkatas real estate sales growth will be more than 20 per cent compared with last year, Patel said. CREDAI West Bengal President Sushil Mohta also called for a stronger township policy and a transferable development rights framework, pointing to models used in Gujarat and Maharashtra to support satellite-town development without large-scale government land acquisition. (ANI)
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