MahaRera Suggests appointing multiple agencies to drive OCs to projects

Speaking at CREDAI’s Event ‘YouthCon-19’ held In New Delhi on February 13-14, 2019, Gautam Chatterjee, Chairman, MahaRera, opined that multiple agencies should be given the task of granting Occupancy Certificates to housing projects in order to break the monopoly of a single officer on whom the onus is put at present. He informed that there were 700 projects in Maharashtra alone where developers had submitted all documents and applied for OC well in time but all their efforts were stonewalled by a single officer who had the authority to grant the OC. Although the approvals had been given by the same planning authority, Gautam Chatterjee stated that he failed to understand why the officer representing the same planning authority took so much time for granting the OC to the project which had been built in accordance to the Commencement Certificate. He suggested the mechanism of outsourcing the process of granting Occupancy Certificates to multiple agencies having a panel of planners and architects to check and grant OCs to projects so as to break the monopoly of the single officer who had power to delay the OC without any reason due to his lack lustre attitude.

Chatterjee educated about RERA along with Rajive Kumar, Uttar Pradesh RERA Chief; Anthony De Sa, Madhya Pradesh Chief; and KK Khandelval, Haryana RERA Chief; who were present at the event.

The MahaRera Chairman gave this opinion on the query by Nayan Shah, President, CREDAI-MCHI, who opined that developers are looking for the day when the approval authorities could come under the ambit of RERA.

CREDAI-MCHI is an apex body of developers, which is recognised by Government of Maharashtra and helps in meeting their objectives of providing housing, which is sought after human necessity/requirement. With a strong membership of over 1,800+ leading developers in Mumbai, CREDAI-MCHI has expanded across MMR, having its own units in Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Mira-Virar, Raigad and Navi Mumbai. Members of CREDAI-MCHI account for 80 per cent of the organised development of new residential and commercial properties in Mumbai and MMR area.