Latest Real Estate News on 'Faridabad'

1,426 trees face the axe for widening of Surajkund road

Rs 85-crore project is likely to be over by April
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, January 23
More than 1,426 trees are likely to be axed for the widening of a road from Ankhir Chowk to the famous Surajkund tourist spot, which will be holding the annual Surajkund Crafts Mela from February 1 to 15.

However, the slow pace of widening of the road could hamper movement of the traffic during the fair, which witnesses a large number of visitors. The road also provides an alternative route to New Delhi. “However, for widening of the road, large numbers of trees have to be cut,” said an official of the department.

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had started the widening of the road a few months ago. The project would cost Rs 85crore.

Admitting that nearly 1,426 trees have been identified, a senior HUDA official said the department had sought permission from the Forest and Environment Department and it was likely to be granted soon as the project was to be completed by April this year.

The trees would be replaced by the department at an alternative place as per the directions of the department. Tourism Department officials said the project was running late and it might not serve the purpose this time as only 12 days were left for the fair to begin.

“This could pose a traffic bottleneck as the road will not be available fully to the commuters during the fair,” said Sharad Kumar, a local resident. “This road has been a victim of neglect over the years despite the fact that Surajkund has been a hotspot for tourists,” said Manoj, resident of Sector 21- C here.

Haryana forms Infrastructure Development Board

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Government has constituted Haryana Infrastructure Development Board under the Chairmanship of Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Haryana chief secretary would be its vice-chairman.

The director general, Town and Country Planning Department has been designated as the Chief Administrator of Haryana Infrastructure Development Board.

An official spokesman said that the other members of the Board included principal secretaries of various departments including finance, irrigation, power, public works (Building and Roads), town and country planning, transport and director general of town and country planning department.

Similarly, finance minister, industries and commerce minister, agriculture minister and chief parliamentary secretary of town and country planning department would be the special invitees of the board.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/haryana-forms-infrastructure-development-board/articleshow/29213469.cms

‘Metro to end Faridabad’s thirst’

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, January 21
Rainwater harvesting, so far ignored in this town, is likely to get a boost with the completion of the city’s Metro Rail Project. The project is likely to recharge underground water significantly and that is good news for this perennially thirsty city. Faridabad’s water requirement exceeds supply by around one billion litres.

Besides providing a smooth and ultramodern way of commuting, the Metro rail would also harvest water through a system installed at all railway stations and the project depot, District Town Planning Department sources reveal. Some 40 rainwater harvesting systems with multi-lakh litre capacity are proposed.

The idea is to prevent even a single drop of rainwater from going to waste. Faridabad citizens usually curse monsoon rains on account of flooded streets and waterlogged localities – if rainwater harvesting is implemented on a wide scale they will bless the rains instead.

As for the rainwater and the Metro, the calculations are like this: The Metro rail here would be 13.875 km long from Badarpur border to YMCA Chowk and will have 13 stations and one depot -cum workshop in Sector 20 here. “This is perhaps the largest project in terms of water harvesting as all the systems installed in various government and semi-government owned projects or buildings had much smaller systems or had been completely missing as the authorities had paid little attention to this issue,” claimed an official in the District Town Planning Department.

The Metro project will help to augment the supply by around two lakh litres, it is claimed.

“The water woes of this industrial city are as old as the city was itself,” remarked DP Sharma, a retired government official here. He said while the majority of the residential areas including the posh sectors of the city were mainly dependent on the rickety tubewell supply network, many of the areas were getting brackish water. The problem remained unsolved despite claims of the civic body to be working on the much anticipated Ranney well water project.

“Lack of adequate and potable water in the city has given birth to a water mafia and suppliers of packaged drinking water , which was worth several hundred crore each year,” said RK Gupta, a resident of Sector 7 here. Claiming that while the RO system and water supply companies were having a booming business, the civic body he said had ignored the rain water harvesting concept so far.

On other hand, Ramesh Bansal, the Executive Engineer of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad claimed that work on 493 crore water project was on and it was likely to make the city water surplus in a few months.

Haryana government plans law on water misuse

CHANDIGARH: With a view to preventing the misuse of groundwater, the Haryana government has proposed a draft model bill for conservation, protection and regulation of groundwater in the state. Formal information in this regard was made by the state government before the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday during the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed on the issue.

As per the details provided by the Haryana government before the court, the objectives of the bill are aimed to ensure that groundwater is protected, conserved and regulated so as to meet basic human and livestock needs; to promote sustainable groundwater use in public interest, based on a long-term protection of available resources and to ensure that the protection, conservation and regulation of groundwater is integrated with the protection, conservation and regulation of surface water.

The proposed bill is also to ensure conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater and to protect ecosystems and their biological diversity.

During the hearing, the government also said that three units of water treatment plant in Gurgaon have been made functional to provide about 20 millions gallons daily (MGD), which could be used in construction purposes.

The Haryana government, on the previous dates of hearing, had undertaken to initiate effective steps against the violators. The high court has already made it clear that the deputy commissioner of the district would be held responsible if groundwater was found to be utilized by builders for any construction.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Haryana-government-plans-law-on-water-misuse/articleshow/27550506.cms

Haryana government’s property tax formula has left flat owners at a disadvantage

TNS

The rationalised property tax regime by the Haryana Government has sent lakhs of property owners, especially apartment owners, into a tizzy. In fact, the “irrational illogical” property tax formula has earned the ire of the apartment owners, including the cooperative housing society members. All of them have alleged that they have got a raw deal at the hands of Hooda government vis-à-vis the independent house owners.

Skewed rationalisation

A look at the property tax rates makes clear that the grouse of apartment owners is justified. “An independent house owner having a plot area of 300 square yards in A-2 cities will pay property tax at the rate of Re 0.75 per square yard, which comes out to Rs 225 per year. However, a person owning a flat having a carpet area of 1,400 square feet will be required to pay property tax at Re 0.75 per square foot, which works out to Rs 1,075 per year,” alleged S.K Aggarwal, general secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Cooperative Group Housing Societies, Panchkula.

And to rub salt into their wounds, Aggarwal alleged that they were not given a personal hearing by the Surjewala Committee formed by the Haryana Government to rationalise property tax, resulting in the current anomaly. In fact, the new property tax regime had sparked off widespread resentment among flat owners, he alleged.

Double whammy

“In fact, it is a double whammy for flat owners as they were also supposed to pay for maintenance of streetlights, power transformers, water supply and internal road network”, adds Aggarwal. The independent house owners are not supposed to pay for these civic amenities and the civic authorities are supposed to maintain these amenities in the case of areas having independent houses.

The formula

The Haryana Government recently came out with the new property tax formula on the recommendations of the high-powered committee headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The notification approved the slab system and divided municipal corporation towns into two categories, A-1 (Gurgaon and Faridabad) and A-2 (Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Hisar and Yamunanagar). Towns having municipal councils and municipal committees were categorised as B and C, respectively.

The state government recently notified the property tax under which residential and commercial plots up to 100 square feet (500 square yards for industrial/institutional properties) were exempted from the tax. A tax of Rs 0.50 per square yard has been levied on property owners in A-1 cities (Gurgaon, Faridabad) and Rs 0.375 per square yard on vacant residential property owners in other municipal corporations in the state for plots measuring 101 to 500 square yards. The tax rate for residential plots measuring 501 square yards and above would be Re 1 and 0.75 per square yard for A-1 and A-2 cities, respectively.

For commercial plots, the rate would be Rs 5 and Rs 3.75 per square yard for A-1 and A-2 cities, respectively. An amount of Rs 2 and Rs 1.5 per square yard would be charged from the owners of industrial/institutional plots measuring 501 square yards in A-1 and A-2 cities, respectively.

For Class B cities (municipal councils) an amount of Rs 0.25 per square yard would be charged while Rs 0.20 per square yard would be charged in Class C cities (municipal committees) for plots from 101 square yards to 500 square yards. The property tax would be Rs 0.50 and Rs 0.40 per square yard for Class B and Class C cities, respectively, for plots measuring 501 yards and above.

For commercial property, the tax at Rs 2.5 per square yard (Class B cities) and at ~2 per square yard (Class C cities) would be charged for plots above 501 square yards. The owners of the institutional/industrial plots would have to shell out ~1 and ~0.80 per square yard from plots measuring beyond 501 square yards.

Meanwhile, for the residential plots up to 300 square yards, an amount of Rs 1 and Rs 0.75 per square yard would have to be paid in A-1 and A-2 cities, respectively. The rate for Class B and Class C cities would be Rs 0.50 and Rs 0.40 per square yard up to 300 square yards. For plots from 301 square yards to 500 square yards, the rate would Rs 4 (A-1 cities) and Rs 3 (A-2 cities). For 301 to 500 square yards, the rate would be Rs 2 (Class B cities) and Rs 1.6 per square yard (Class C cities).

Similarly, for apartments up to 2,000 square feet, the property tax rates would be Rs 1 per square feet (A-1 cities) and Rs 0.75 per square feet (A-2 cities). The rate would go up to Rs 1.2 per square feet (A-1 cities) and Rs 0.90 per square feet (A-2 cities) in case of flats from 2,001 to 5,000 feet. In case of flats up to 2,000 square feet, the rate would ~0.50 (Class B cities) and Rs 0.40 (Class C cities). For flats in the category of 2,001 to 5,000 feet, the rate would be Rs 0.60 (Class B cities) and Rs 0.48 per square feet (Class C cities).

As far as commercial property was concerned, a rate of Rs 24 per square yard (A-1 cities) and Rs 18 (A-2 cities) would be charged for shops up to 50 yards. For shops from 51 to 100 square feet, the rate would go up to Rs 36 (A-1 cities) to Rs 27 (Class-2 cities). In Class B cities, the rate would be Rs12 while it would be Rs 9.60 per square yard in Class C cities for up to 50 square yards. In case of property from 51 to 100 square yards, the rate would Rs 18 (Class B cities) and Rs 14.40 per square yard (Class C cities).

The property tax was scrapped in 2010 by the Congress government. As a consequence, the Central Government stopped the release of Central grants. The Hooda Government would now be eligible to get Central grants amounting to over Rs 750 crore.

Pay arrears

In a clear bid to mop up resources, the state government has brought the vacant plots within the tax ambit. Besides, the property owners will have to pay arrears of the property tax with effect from April 1, 2010.

Exempted categories

100 per cent rebate to the religious properties, orphanages, almshouses, municipal buildings, cremation or burial grounds, dharamshalas, Central and state government educational institutions and government hospitals.
100 per cent rebate would be given to the self-occupied residential houses up to 300 square yard owned by serving and retired defence and paramilitary personnel or his/her spouse, families of deceased soldiers/ex-servicemen/ex-Central paramilitary forces personnel.
100 per cent rebate to the self-occupied residential houses owned by freedom fighter or his/her spouse and war widows.
Similarly, 50 per cent rebate would be given to the state government buildings(other than buildings of boards/corporations/ undertakings/ autonomous bodies.

Fact sheet

-Apartment owners up in arms against new irrational property tax formula
-Apartment owners to pay much more tax than freehold property owners
-Cooperative housing societies not given personal hearing by Surjewala Committee
-Apartment owners urge the CM to hold property tax notification in abeyance

एफएनजी मार्ग की अड़चन दूर

• अमर उजाला ब्यूरो
नोएडा। फरीदाबाद, नोएडा व गाजियाबाद को जोड़ने वाले एफएनजी मार्ग की जमीन की अड़चन को दूर कर लिया गया। करीब सात सौ मीटर एफएनजी पर सोरखा के किसान सड़क बनाने देने पर राजी हो गए हैं।
एफएनजी की राह में सेक्टर-118 के पास करीब सात सौ मीटर की दूरी में जमीन का विवाद था। सोरखा गांव के किसान इसका विरोध कर रहे थे। उनका कहना था कि पांच प्रतिशत आबादी और मुआवजा वितरित करने के बाद निर्माण होने देंगे। प्राधिकरण के अधिकारी पिछले दो दिन से लगातार प्रयासरत थे। मांग शीघ्र पूरा करने के आश्वासन के बाद किसान मान गए। इसके बाद मंगलवार से सड़क का निर्माण भी शुरू हो गया है। इस दौरान प्राधिकरण ने पुलिस का भी इंतजाम कर रखा था।
परियोजना अभियंता एचएन सिंह ने बताया कि करीब सात सौ मीटर एरिया में बचे एफएनजी के काम को तेजी से पूरा कराया जाएगा।

http://epaper.amarujala.com/svww_zoomart.php?Artname=20131120a_005105004&ileft=-5&itop=1061&zoomRatio=188&AN=20131120a_005105004

Faridabad MC fails to regularise illegal water, sewer connections

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, November 12
Efforts of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) to regularise the illegal water and sewer connections and mop up revenue from the exercise have failed to make an impact.

The structures which have illegal connections continue to enjoy the facilities of the corporation. Consequently, they are not only cheating on the government by not paying a penny as end-users, they are also poaching on the utilities at the cost of law-abiding citizens.

The lacklustre response of the defaulters to the drive is attributed to the interference by local politicians who do not want to antagonise themselves, apparently on account of vote-bank politics.

Although the municipal body has no record, there are at least 1 lakh illegal connections in the city.

The figure, however, does not take into account the areas where the corporation has not been able to lay water pipe and sewerage lines.

The corporation launched a scheme to give rebate on installation charges if water and sewer connections were sought simultaneously.

Camps are being organised where the public could come forward and complete the formalities regarding the installations water and sewer connections.

As per the scheme, an owner of 100 sq ft property would have to pay Rs 2,200 as installation charges if he opts for simultaneous connections. However, if the installations are sought separately, the total charge would be around Rs 3,500. However, the rebate differs as per the size of properties.

Zonal Taxation Officer of the corporation Balbir Singh said in the camps held at various centres of the city from April to June, only 4,000 water and sewer connections were sought.

The corporation collected about Rs 78 lakh as revenue from the exercise.

The camps are being organised again from the last week, but the response from the public remains tepid.

Sources said even though the corporation had taken a policy decision to regularise the connections through the incentive scheme, it was not strict against the defaulters.

Also, it has not set a deadline for the regularisation of the illegal connections.