Pune to have agency to rate eco-housing projects

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is to appoint one more agency to implement the eco-housing policy to promote environment-friendly measures in real estate. The agency will help the civic administration in rating the eco-housing projects in Pune.

The civic body's Executive Engineer Rajendra Raut said that in the last four years, the civic body has received 50 applications of eco-housing and as many as 30 proposals were given the incentives for eco-housing. The PMC had earlier appointed Science and Technology Park (STP) for executing the eco-housing policy on behalf of the civic body.

As per the agreement, the appointed agency was supposed to scrutinise proposals and issue provisional certificates to applicants for the projects. The agency was to regularly examine the implementation of the policy and submit report every month to the civic body. According to the proposal tabled in the standing committee, STP was not submitting its monthly report on the implementation of the eco-housing policy. Thus, it was decided to engage one more agency for the job.

Raut said the idea is to promote environment-friendly measures in the real estate industry but not many are coming forward. Under the policy, the projects were also being given star rating for the implementation of eco-housing policy and incentive in the premium for construction while those buying were eligible to avail rebate in property tax.