Credai Orissa which comprises 37 developers has also welcomed BDA's move to remove the ceiling on height of buildings which was earlier pegged at 27 metres. The new norms will enable vertical growth of buildings, allowing developers to have greater built-up area for their projects and thereby help them to reduce the project costs.
The fresh building norms of BDA have done away with the building restrictions, except in some strategic zones and the new norms have linked the height of buildings to the plot size and width of the road which the plot abuts. According to the new BDA norms, the maximum height of a building shall not exceed one and a half times the width of the road which the plot abuts.
Besides doing away with height restrictions for buildings, BDA has fixed the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for new housing projects at 2.5 and the FAR can be allowed to go up to 2.75 for IT office space and also housing projects designed for the economically weaker sections of the society. The revised FAR will be applicable to all the major areas in and around the city, barring the heritage zones.
"The revised FAR by BDA coupled with the recently announced stimulus package for the realty sector by the Centre will give a fillip to the real estate projects. Higher FAR would bring down construction costs for the developers and the project costs are also set to drop by 20-30 per cent", added Tripathy.
Following the notification of the latest BDA norms, the residential real estate projects will be available in the range of Rs 1,800-2,000 per sq ft, compared to the prevailing rate of about Rs 2,500 per sq ft.
Talking on the status of the comprehensive development plan (CDP) of the city prepared by IIT, Kharagpur, he said, "The CDP of Bhubaneswar was scheduled to be notified for implementation by January but it is expected to be delayed by two months as BDA has received over 5,000 applications pertaining to the draft CDP."
According to the CDP, the city's population is projected at about 30 lakh by 2030 and to accommodate 30 lakh people in the city, an area of 9,286 acres has been earmarked for residential purposes in the CDP.
Out of the total area of 9,286 acres, 400 acres has been earmarked for Special Residential Zone (SRZ) and the housing projects being developed on this SRZ will enjoy exemption from sales tax and value added tax. Credai, Orissa feels that allocating an area of 2,000 acres for SRZ in the CDP would help to accommodate 15-20 per cent of the projected population of 30 lakh and the move is aimed to benefit people belonging to economically weaker sections of the society. BDA has recently constituteda committee to consider this demand.
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