Investing in a Better World

01 Dec 2023 CW Team

In a shocker for Mumbaikars, who were under the impression that proximity to the sea would take care of any pollution, Mumbai’s Guardian Minister Deepak Kesarkar, citing data from the Central Pollution Control Board, said the city had an average air quality index (AQI) score of 156 while New Delhi was at 121. He attributed this to development projects such as the metro and real-estate construction. To curb pollution, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has warned that it will shut down construction sites that do not take pollution control measures.

Currently, there are about 6,000 construction sites in Mumbai, including road infrastructure, metro-rail and other real-estate projects. Also, it is possible that construction activity has more than doubled on account of the 50 per cent premium (fees for approval) waiver announced by the Maharashtra government in 2021 In January 2021?, the state had approved a proposal to slash premium charges on real-estate projects by half until 31 December 2021.

To read the full story, CLICK HERE

Real Estate

05 Dec 2025

RBI Rate Cut Boosts Confidence Across Housing Market

Industry Context and Market DynamicsThe real estate industry has welcomed the RBI’s rate cut as a timely boost to affordability and demand. With home prices having risen steadily across major markets, even a marginal reduction in interest rates meaningfully strengthens purchasing power, especially for first-time and mid-income buyers.Ashish Jerath, President – Sales & Marketing, Smartworld Developers, observes:“The RBI’s 25-basis-point cut, bringing the repo rate down to 5.25%, is a timely boost for the real estate sector. Lower interest rates reduce borrowing costs, enabling homeb..

BMC Resumes Rs 170 Billion Road Works, Targets 80 per cent By Jan 2026

Following the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in October, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has restarted work on 645 roads—covering 297.49 kilometres—under its large-scale concretisation programme. Data shows that more than 60 per cent of the resumed works are located in the western suburbs. Officials said the civic body aims to complete concretisation on 80 per cent of the roads where fresh work has begun by January 2026. Launched in 2022, the Rs 170 billion project seeks to concretise 700 kilometres of roads across Mumbai. All civil works were halted during the monsoon ..

India Pushes Digital Shift In Urban Land Mapping

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) under the Ministry of Rural Development has convened a National Symposium on NAKSHA – the National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations – to advance India’s transition to modern, technology-driven land mapping. Speaking at the inaugural session, Secretary Manoj Joshi underscored the urgent need to move revenue departments away from outdated, tape-based methods and rough hand-drawn sketches. He stressed that adopting latitude–longitude-based digital mapping and GIS-linked registration systems is essential for economic stabi..