GDA to not increase land allotment rates for 2017-18

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) on Monday decided against the increasing land allotment rates till March 2018 due to the slowdown in the realty sector and fall in property sales.

Allotment rates or circle rates are fixed prices at which the authorities sell land for housing, industrial units, commercial and institutional projects.

"Same as we did for the Yamuna Expressway Authority, we have decided not to increase land allotment rates for the financial year 2017-18 in all categories. We have approved a proposal in this regard in our board meeting," said Dr Prabhat Kumar, Chairman, GDA.

In its board meeting held on July 17, the GDA also decided to reduce the interest rates of allottees of housing and residential plots.

"GDA will form a committee to discuss the new interest rates on monthly installment for residential plots and house. The move was taken to relax the common and lower class persons," the chairman told reporters.

In the view of increasing fire incidents, Kumar said that "the GDA board meeting decided to fire audit of all kinds of all commercials as well as residential multistoried buildings such as commercial malls, hotels hospitals, schools, educational Institutes and other buildings. GDA will audit the buildings to see whether they qualify the fire safety parameters".

The chairman laid stress on the audit of fire safety measures not the NOC (No objection certificate) as he feel that the NOC is very easy to obtain.

Apart from these, the other major decisions taken up by GDA officials in its 148th board meeting were regarding the recovery of debts from various housing construction companies.

The GDA will also issue a final notice to builders of various high-tech integrated townships to recover its outstanding Rs 110 crore.

There were 22 points of discussion for which the board meeting was held. Though there were very few steps taken up for the development as the board focused more on the budget planning and increasing the revenue.

"The GDA has decided to buy the 281 acre land for Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme at the rate of as orders by Supreme Court. The GDA will need Rs 1,232 crore for it. Rs 300 crore will be arranged by the authority and rest of total amount will be managed by other sources." added the chairman of GDA.