RERA calls for national-level real estate planning, insuring projects

The Punjab Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has called for urgent regional and national-level strategic planning of real estate development, flagging a “lack of vision” among competent authorities issuing licences. It recommended a single-window, API-based clearance system, digitisation of records with title guarantees and mandatory insurance of realty projects to protect allottees.

“Before this Bench departs from its judgment, it feels duty-bound to suggest certain recommendations to be made to the competent authorities under Section 32 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, so as to facilitate the growth and promotion of a healthy, transparent, efficient and competitive real estate sector,” RERA member Arunvir Vashista asserted, while directing that the recommendations be placed before the full authority and forwarded to the government.

Referring to peripheral development around Chandigarh, particularly Zirakpur, as a cautionary example, Vashista observed that uncontrolled high-rise construction along national and state highways had resulted in permanent traffic congestion, raising serious questions over how approvals were granted. “It has added to a huge and heavy footfall on highways leading to long traffic jams becoming a permanent feature,” he observed.

The Bench noted that the “mushroom growth of commercial and residential projects right on the main roads and highways” showed that the “futuristic impact of the growth and development is glaringly ignored,” reflecting a clear “lack of vision” due to the absence of, or failure to adhere to, strategic master planning.

Clarifying the scale required, the authority said: “When we are talking of a master plan, it is not about the master layout of a project or of a city and of a district. It is at the level of at least a geological region, state and of the entire country.” Such planning, it said, must account for topography, demographic projections, zoning, sustainability and geological and environmental viability, while recognising that regions are interconnected through rivers, natural resources and highways. Flagging seismic vulnerability, the authority noted that parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh fall in Category VI of seismically prone areas, making strategic planning “urgently indispensable.”

Vashista stressed institutional coordination through technology. “Some API mechanism should be urgently developed enabling all stakeholders to communicate with each other sharing information,” it said to enable a “single window system” for time-bound approvals.

To tackle disputes over land identity, the authority called for digitisation of land records and movement towards conclusive titles with guarantees, recommending that sanctioned plans be “doubly superimposed on ‘lathas’ or maps prepared by the Revenue Department and Google Earth images” depicting ‘khasra’ numbers.

Noting that delays and abandonment were the main cause of promoter-allottee disputes, RERA recommended mandatory insurance. “An important step that may be taken by the appropriate government ‘notifying insurances’ to be obtained by the promoter…,” Vashista said, adding it would ensure completion and reduce litigation.

Calling strategic planning the most critical reform, the authority directed circulation of the judgment to all stakeholders “for soul-searching.”