Train in return for compensation of land

Two farmers of Una district, which is in Himachal Pradesh, may become the owner of Delhi – Una Janshatabdi Express, if court order will be executed on April 16, 2015.

Additional district and sessions judge Mukesh Bansal, associated with court of Una ordered on April 9 to attach the Delhi – Una Janshatabdi, if railway is not able to pay the compensation for two different farmers, as there land was acquired for new railway track which is also known as; Una – Amb track in the year 1998. Finally court orders that if railways failed to pay Rs 35 lakh to Madan Lal and Mela Ram by April 15, so train will be stopped at Una on the date April 16 at 5 am and attached by the court. However Lal is entitled for Rs 26.53 lakh and Ram is entitled for Rs 8.91 lakh and after not receiving the money Lal and Ram moved to court against the delay in compensation and after that Himachal Pradesh HC directed to railways in 2013 to pay the money within next six weeks.

As per the statement of Advocate Arun Kumar Saini, who represented the side of farmers, Railways had acquired the land in year 1998, and due to late in compensation two farmers filed a case for higher compensation. The court had given the time of three months to railways for filing an appeal against the compensation and verdict. In the response railways moved the HC in 2013 and HC stayed the order with response to increase the compensation and deposited in the court within next six weeks. But still railways haven’t deposited the current amount.

High Court had also made it clear that after six weeks, parties will be free to execute the order, however later the farmers moved the lower court and after hearing the plea in lower court on April 9, Additional district and sessions judge Mukesh Bansal ordered to attach the Janshatabadi train. We would submit the list of four trains, Janshatabdi and Himachal Express and court moved with decision to attach the Janshatabdi.

Women has no rights on in-laws property

Recently, the Supreme Court has come to rescue one of the senior citizens by evicting the estranged daughter-in-law from his Yamuna Vihar property. Now apex court is in the process to uphold the verdict of the Delhi High Court that a daughter in law has no right over a self acquired property of the in-laws, against the latter’s consent.

About Case:

To safeguard the rights of the single mother and her two children, Supreme Court ordered the husband to provide n alternate accommodation or property on her name and pay monthly maintenance as per law. In the recent order, one of the benches of Justices Uday Umesh Lalit and Madan B Lokur also put an end to years of fighting between the women, her in-laws and as well her husband by granting the couple divorce. However in the end judges made it clear that she will get possession of the flat only on vacating the father-in-law’s property.

Case against Delhi High Court ruling:

SC formalized a complex settlement between the feuding parties on an appeal which was filled by the woman against the Delhi HC ruling. High Court had directed her to hand over vacant and peaceful possession of the property to her estranged father-in-law, the owner, dismissing her argument that as a legally wedded wife, she had a right to live in the property. The victim claimed that property was purchased out by joint family funds, and argued that under Domestic Violence Act, the property is a shared household where she has the right to reside.

But in that particular case, advocate Prabhjit Jauhar from the side of father in law, filed a suit for her eviction in 2011 in the Karkardooma Court by arguing in effect that a daughter in law has no automatic right to a property self owned by the father in law, if it is not an ancestral home or one purchased with joint funds. Neither the Dv Act nor any other law permit the daughter in law to stay against the in laws wishes, he submitted.

MHADA will review its 104 colonies

Recently, the Maharashtra State Government is in his effort to augment housing supply in Mumbai and in that process it asked to MHADA (Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority) to to review its all 104 colonies spread over 3,800 prime acres across the city. The Maharashtra State Government has also asked to MHADA to assess the quantum of fresh supply and demand through redevelopment of these colonies.

The housing authority of Maharashtra State Government is currently working on the report, to ascertain the additional housing supply which can be infused into the market in the next few years by redeveloping these colonies which was built between the ‘1960s and mid ‘1980s. According to the top officials of MHADA, “The assessment will be completed in the next three weeks. As now we have to consider the existing housing supply in these colonies which has already consumed FSI (floor space index), space needed to be used for rehabilitation of existing tenants and balance amount of FSI that can be used for fresh housing supply.” Floor space index (FSI) is the permissible development area on a land parcel and it can be estimated that around two lacs people are living in these 104 colonies and they are from middle-and lower-income group whereas; these colonies are located mostly in the central and suburban parts of Mumbai.

According to MHADA officials, “Out of total 104 colonies approx. 72 are such colonies where redevelopment can be undertaken. Of these 72 layouts, 56 complexes are in such a condition that they must be redeveloped soon.” Around 56 of these complexes should be redeveloped on larger layouts and almost not fit to be occupied because these complexes have been declared unsafe to live in by the MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai).

The state had raised the Floor Space Index (FSI) for these colonies in 2013 to three from earlier limit of 2.5 in order to encourage the societies to come together under cluster development and from long time the efforts have been made to redevelop these housing colonies. Under the recently revised Floor Space Index (FSI), each existing tenant is expected to get a unit spread of over 405 square feet.

ADB support India’s ambitious plan to build 100 smart cities in Country

ADB (Asian Development Bank), which is Manila based bank stated that they are committed to support India’s most ambitious plan, which is to build around 100 smart cities in the country. As per the statement of Takehiko Nakao, who is the President of Asian Development Bank, “Our bank will continue to play an important role in driving the development of inclusive, resilient, green and eco friendly cities and for the global climate change agenda and success of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It is expected that the use of intelligent systems and latest technology will improve the urban services for the poor, which will include the affordable transportation and as well as including sanitation, officials said in the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2015. From starting Asian Development Bank was committed to support the India’s 100 smart cities initiative. Now it’s perfect time to make the cities greener, so that they can become more resource and energy efficient through promotion of low carbon emission or development and as well as the smart use of natural sources such as; water.

He said, “If we want to see the real growth we need to invest more in mass public transport systems and in better waste and wastewater management process, which means to make the transport systems more integrated for better and convenient uses. The more he added that to make the cities more resilient decision makers we should consider the climate change and natural hazards risks while designing cities as well as the urban infrastructure. It is well known fact that small up-front investments are able to save lives and avoid large scale infrastructure rebuilding and rehabilitation costs later”. Now it’s time to invest more in climate resilient infrastructure like; bigger storm-water retention reservoirs to accommodate variations in rainfall, enlarged drainage systems in cities and elevated roads. At Asian Development Bank, approx. all investment projects are screened for climate risks.

All the green, resilient and inclusive cities need better governance and more effective institutions for management as greater use of integrated urban planning and better use of land can attract more timely investments for resilient and more sustainable infrastructure. For example; It could consider the new finance instruments to better mobilize local resources like; through PPPs (public private partnerships) or municipal bond mechanisms.  As per the statement of ADB President, 2015 can be the milestone for international development in India.

It is expected that an agreement on SDGs for 2015 agenda will appear in the September United Nations (UN) summit, which is going to held in New York and in December there are chances for new climate deal to be agreed at COP 21 in Paris.

Union Budget 2015-16

It is the demand of real estate developers in upcoming Budget to revive the tax structures and lower interest rates for the home buyers as home is there ultimate need. Apart from to seek for better infrastructure status for housing, Getamber Anand, the Elected President of CREDAI stated in real estate press conference organized by RICS that “The government should provide some fiscal incentives to the real estate developers to build affordable housing.”  NAREDCO Chairman Naveen Raheja stated that: “There should be some real stimulus for the affordable home buyers in form of lower interest rates.” The more he added that we wish this budget will provide better infrastructure status to housing if not the entire real estate”. On the same occasion, CBRE South Asia Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine stated that infrastructure development and low cost funding should be key for the revival of the real estate sector.

CEO Embassy Office Parks, Michael Holland demanded that “Now it’s perfect time when central government should provide some clarification on tax treatment of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), particularly on Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) because we all know that real estate sales are down and it can put the realty market in worst post-global financial crisis. It means that we are at the bottom, it can only go up from here as sales are not happening so this is good opportunity for buyers to buy home”. Commenting on the need to incentivize the affordable housing segment, Sachin Sandhir RICS Global’s Managing Director – Emerging Business & MD – South Asia said: “Despite the inherent fundamentals of the realty market, things have slowed down in recent times and we must introspect as an industry the reasons why this has happened, and address the issues. The core issue of increasing affordability and supply of housing should be addressed.”

In September 2014, SEBI, which is market regulator, had notified that there are few norms for listing of new business trust structure under REITs and they would help to attract more funds in a transparent manner into the realty sector.These norms were notified when Finance Minister, had provided the REITs ‘pass through’ status for the purpose of taxation in the last year’s budget, Vineet Relia, MD of SARE Homes stated that in order to ‘Make housing for all a Reality’ central government should look into relaxation of taxes, and lower interest rates with easy process of financing for the developers and build adequate infrastructure”.

On Wednesday, cabinet defers on the approval of Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill, which is committed to ensure consumer protection and to establish regulatory bodies at Centre and states for transparent and ethical business practices in country’s real estate sector. As per sources, the housing ministry has been asked to review the real estate bill explore that how it can be more consumer-friendly and to have better provisions for promotion of affordable housing.

Country’s Real Estate Sector

In review low cost housing and roof have been identified as a focus area by central government and it has promised the housing for all by 2022. Low-cost housing and roof to all have been identified as a focus area by the Narendra Modi government and it has promised shelter to all by 2022. TOI has learnt that there was a suggestion and strong argument during the Cabinet meeting that the provisions relating to Centre-state issues need to be made clearer in the bill. In current session of Parliament, central government has included the bill as one of the legislations for passage.

Recommendations in Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill:

The real estate bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August 2014 and referred to the parliamentary standing committee for modifications and later committee had made several recommendations particularly in favor of consumers and greater check on unscrupulous developers, the housing ministry has rejected most of them. According to committee there are also several provisions in the revised bill with a single aim to protect the consumer’s interest. This has reference to recent cases in Noida where a developer had changed plans and built towers to increase economic viability without taking buyers into confidence. The real estate bill also included that the condition prohibits a developer to change the plan in a project unless 2/3rd of the allottees have concurred for such change.

As per new recommendations, now it will include checking the antecedents of project promoters before their registration is done and ensure that all real estate developers who have defaulted in two earlier cases be blacklisted. But later housing ministry has ministry rejected this by arguing that this a provision will work as a deterrent for the sector. The panel of committee had also recommended all real estate agents involved in sale of secondary market projects also need to be regulated through real estate bill. But this was not accepted. Similarly, the panel also suggested that promoters be made to enclose names of contractors, architects and structural engineers, which were also turned down.

Earlier housing ministry have allowed to builder to divert up to 50% of buyers’ investment in case of special projects to other real estate projects which are under criticism. But the original real estate bill had mandated the developer to put more than 70 per cent of the buyers’ investment to an escrow account to be used only for construction of that project.

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation

Now finally work is going to start on building the smart cities at Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and for that central government has moved the conceptualization stage and now after five years they finally sought bids for building core infrastructure on Delhi-Mumbai Corridor.

On last Thursday, DMICDC (Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation) invited the bids for trunk infrastructure and setting the stage for construction of core infrastructure projects in the proposed of green-field city for the Pithampur-DharMhow Investment Region, which is in Madhya Pradesh. According to authentic sources the estimated cost for the initial projects can be worth of Rs 300 crore. Later on Friday evening, the Trust of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) cleared three smart city projects for a second city in Dholera, which is in Gujarat and it will include the administrative building, water treatment plant and roads and utilities in the first stage. Along with all development and as well as with sewerage treatment plants and common effluent, it is expected that these will be of worth Rs 2,650 crore. After getting the green light from the trust, now DMICDC is planning to seek bids later this month. In next step there will be more bids for similar infrastructure facilities in Shendra, which is in Maharashtra and it will be the third city on which bids are expected to be sought by the end of the financial year.

As per the officials, the work on Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida is in progress and for some of the work bids will be invited by the end of March. The fifth project is the Global City near Gurgaon and for that master plan is about to complete. Now DMICDC is too keen for the trunk infrastructure in these three cities as they are ready over in next three years so that work on commercial projects, residential properties and factories can commence. Central government is hoping that the private sector will take over once the core infrastructure is in place. Apart from these five smart cities central government is targeting 100 smart cities, in which most of them will be the upgrading of existing ones, while proposed cities along with the industrial corridor are green-field projects. We all know that in India, only a handful of new cities have been built after the independence.

Government of Gujarat is expecting new airport in an ancient port of Dholera in the state to take on Dubai as one of the most admiring global hub. It is well known fact that Rs 1,000 crore projects has been actively backed by the Modi government and has been envisaged when Modi was CM of Gujarat, said by General Manager, Dholera International Airport, a state-run company.

Dholera is located in Gujarat and it is more than 100 kilometers from the state capital of Ahmedabad, which is almost similar distance from one of the other key city Vadodara. As a town Dholera covers more than 920 square kilometers area, but its Wikipedia page claims it will be developed into a megacity by 2025, which will be six times more than the size of Shanghai, which is the largest city by population in the world. The city Shanghai is spread on an area of 6.340.5 square meters however Dholera’s Wikipedia page doesn’t clarify how it will reach a several multiples of Shanghai’s proportions.

Chavda stated that the Dholera airport will be an alternate to Ahmedabad which will be saturated in the next five years. Now when it comes that why it will better hub than Dubai, so he stated that a Heathrow-Dholera-Singapore flight will entail a distance than is 322 kilometers lesser than a Heathrow-Dubai-Singapore airport. A total of 1,426 hectares area has been selected for the airport site, which can have at-least two runways and the length for these runway can be 000 meters and 2,900 meters, according to its brochure. The brochure ironically sports a picture of one of the terminals at the Dubai airport, lined on one side with Emirates’ planes, which means it still, aiming to beat Dubai as a hub is ambitious.

According to the news of Gulf Airport, London’s Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world as it were handled more than 70.48 million passengers in 2014. Airport has four of the multi-level terminals, one which has been built at a cost of $8 billion or approximately Rs 45,000 crore, and three concourse connections between them. It is handling more than 140 airlines connecting to 270 destinations and able to contribute more than $26.7 billion to Dubai’s economy or 27% of its GDP. Currently, Dubai is planning to build a $32 billion second airport with five runways.

Recently, Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra assured the industrialists for quick and speedy completion of key infrastructure projects in Mumbai and its suburbs and he allowed the Mumbai’s civic body to float municipal bonds for the first time ever. In a conference, to transform Mumbai, Devendra Fadnavis, stated that it is expected that an ambitious 35-km long coastal road linking the city’s northern and southern extremities will be completed in next two years whereas; the work on the 22.5 km Mumbai trans Harbour link, which will link the Sewri in the island city to the mainland, will start by the end of 2015 and by the time the new airport is ready, which is 2019. CM Fadnavis, the more added that I know it is impossible, however projects much bigger than coastal road have been completed before two years. So let’s try to do it.”

Most of the Mumbai’s infrastructural projects have been delayed due to poor planning and over cost that can cause frustration and anger between the city’s harassed office goers and as well as harassed commuters. it is well known fact that a 4.7 km bridge linking Bandra to Worli took more than 10 years to build whereas; a flyover between Santa Cruz and Chembur took more than 11 years and they cost more than Rs 450 crore, which is pretty high. But CM was sounding positively as he stated that state government was willing to willing to stick their neck out to set an example. It is expected that environmental clearances for coastal road and other projects will be given by the end of monsoon followed by bids for road construction.

Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister stated in the conference that through a video link and by giving his support for developing Mumbai as a financial centre. This conference was held to brainstorm the ideas for the development of Mumbai as the world class financial capital of country, so that it can represent the host of industrialists, Jayant Sinha, who is the Union Minister of State for Finance, Fadnavis, other cabinet colleagues and state bureaucrats. In the conference, CM Fadnavis also allowed to Brihamumbai Municipal Corporation to float municipal bonds and it was for the first time when Commissioner Sitaram Kunte complained that they need such flexibility.

Municipal bonds will allow the civil bodies to get the fund from the market to fund the development work for infrastructure projects without relying on the state largesse or tax increases. BMC, which is the richest municipal body in Asia has a budget of Rs 33,514 crore, and it is more than then the market of Punjab National Bank,, which is the fifth largest PSU bank in terms of assets. Giving an instance of how his government has been taking quick decisions, the CM stated that in past two months our state had given sanction to more than 25 development plans that were in the line.

India is one of the fastest growing countries and its internet legion is bigger than the Indonesia’s 250 million population. In India internet users are growing with the annual rate of 20 per cent and all they have lured to property portal investment in the form of likes Japanese telecoms-to-media firm SoftBank Corp. Before few days Google Inc’s Google Capital unit invested a huge amount of money in the online site known as; Commonfloor.com. In present investors are looking for long terms capital for start-ups such as; Housing.com and Proptiger have also make the Indian real estate market more attractive for foreign investors in comparison of China, where local money dominates, stated by one of the investor, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

Why online portals real estate portals are better than traditional real estate market?

In real estate market traditional home buyers work with local brokers, but in a whole country property market already estimated by worth $121 billion in 2013, according to KPMG. There are some property portals who are offering online ability to compare house prices of thousands of kilometers property away without leaving home. According to, Indian businessman Navin Bhartia, “Internet habits make him a dream customer for billionaire foreign media moguls like Rupert Murdoch”. PM Modi has paved the way to attract more and more foreign investment in construction and land based acquisition deals. PM has already sought to make an impact on India’s still largely unregulated property market by making the listing of real estate investment trusts easier.

Recent investments in online real estate portals:

A person of 45-year-old from Kolkata love to buy home online, sometimes even without visiting them, in last four years he has bought five properties worth of 40 million rupees ($641,900) from online property portal Proptiger.com, which is owned by Murdoch’s News Corp. Foreign investors such as; Murdoch have already invest more than $200 million into online property portals, which help people like Bhartia to buy homes. Spurring the interest is PM Modi’s vow to provide a house to every Indian family by 2022 under “Housing for ALL” schemes as the country’s growing army of Internet users embraces e-commerce. As per Mukul Singhal, a principal at India-China fund SAIF Partners, “Growth and scale of businesses like Flipkart are a proxy that consumers in India are comfortable doing transactions on the Internet”. Recently, SAIF Partners have invested $10 million in Proptiger and News Corp has invested a $30 million stake.

Disadvantages of traditional real estate market:

Indian real estate market is too messy and there are a lot of information arbitrage and asymmetry whereas; there is no credible pricing data and analysis is available, which makes it clear that why there is more need of  technology-based solutions, as per the statement of SAIF Partners principal Singhal. As per one of the customer, “A single broker has there some limited contacts and he could have personal reasons for pushing a property, whereas; in online mode you get very good and holistic views about each and every property”.

Future growth of online real estate portals:

As per recent reports of Venture Intelligence, It’s clear that investment in property portals jumped five-fold to $193 million last year. This research firm also expects India’s housing market to grow to $158 billion by 2020. Some websites, who charge a huge amount of money as subscription fees or a percentage of the sales price, are still accountable for home sales in India. For investors like News Corp, though, the Internet logic is inescapable. Apart from boosting the housing sales which have flagged as India’s growing economy in recent years, real estate developers are tying up with portals to push transactions online with special promotions.

According to Raju Narisetti, VP of of strategy at News Corp, “India’s digital demographic is a key factor in looking at this space”. On eof the real estate developer Tata Housing is the part of  $100 billion Tata group, in November 2014 they have sold homes worth more than 500 million rupees through a partnership with Housing.com, now days even buyers could see the 3D models of the units and token payment as well as whole amount and rest of the process can be done through online mode.