Punjab Cabinet nods for new affordable housing policy for LIG

To check the mushrooming of unauthorised colonies and facilitate affordable housing for lower income groups, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday paved the way for the notification of the Affordable Colony Policy-2018.

With most unauthorized colonies found to have small sized plots that are normally purchased by economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG), the State Government had decided to relax certain provisions in approved colonies, including relaxation in saleable area, floor area ratio (FAR), etc, with the aim to make plots available to the common man on affordable rates.

The Cabinet has now given its nod to the new policy, aimed at offering higher density and FAR to the promoters who were keen to develop an affordable colony, said an official spokesperson.

Spokesperson said that the new policy has proposed rebate in rates pertaining to Change of Land Use (CLU), External Development Charges (EDC) and License Fee (LF) to enable construction of the maximum possible number of flats over an acre of land.

This would help makes these available to the LIGs on affordable price.

Plot sizes in such colonies shall be maximum up to 125 square yards and their average size shall not exceed 100 square yard.

Under the policy, a maximum of five acres of land would be required to carve out an affordable colony in all the Master Plans of the state, except SAS Nagar and New Chandigarh Master Plans, wherein any activity to set up a colony is only allowed to be undertaken as per the provisions of the approved master plans.

The policy proposes plotted, flatted and a mix of plotted and flatted development by the promoters. It also envisages the maximum saleable area for the flats at 65 percent of the total project, as against the existing 50 percent, which would come as a major relief to builders.

Similarly, under the flatted development on roads of 40 to 80 feet and above, an FAR of 1:2 to 1:3 has been proposed. Parking norms for the dwelling units have also been relaxed.

As per a recent inventory, there are approximately 8,000 unauthorized colonies having about 40,000 acres of land, which have come up without permission from the competent authority in a haphazard manner and are devoid of basic facilities such as water supply, sewerage etc.

The mushrooming of unauthorized colonies has been found to be directly linked to non-availability of affordable housing for the lower and middle income groups.