Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani highlighting the 7% GDP growth rate and the real estate sector's 15% growth rate, emphasized rapid infrastructure development as the key growth driver. “India is constructing 35 km of national highways per day, with addition of 300 km of metro lines only in Mumbai. The upcoming new airports across the country, improved connectivity, and slum redevelopment initiatives are all contributing to economic progress. In addition, creating master plans for destinations like Mumbai to Pune or Alibaug, can make them potential tourist and IT hubs. With the right government strategies and planning at the state authority levels, Indian cities can provide economic and social opportunities for all segments of society. Ayodhya is an example with the kind of development which took place in two years. The entire city has been revamped, a new airport in Lucknow will promote tourism and economic growth along with it.”
R.C. Sinha agreed, “With increased connectivity, the government should now focus on developing new cities to the scale of Mumbai or Delhi. “Let’s shift the real estate development from metro to non-metro cities. For example, Hyderabad today is competing with Bangalore in terms of IT industry and pricing. Similarly, Rajarhat has become an IT/commercial hub giving run for its money to the capital city of Kolkata. Why are we making congested cities more congested by increasing FSI, let’s go around and look for other places to develop 20-30 more cities. Moreover, keeping environment in mind, any new development should be based on the condition of protecting the trees and planting double the number of trees that have to be felled.”
Speaking about the area where India lacks behind, Dr Hiranandani expressed, “The affordable housing sector has experienced a slowdown in growth over the past year, unlike previous trends where it outpaced luxury and mid-level housing. This decline is attributed to two key factors: rising interest rates (from 6.5% to 8.5-8.7%) and the exhaustion of the PMAY scheme in July last year. However, with the Prime Minister's recent decision to subsidize one crore houses in urban areas and two crore houses in rural areas under PMAY, affordable housing growth is expected to rebound in the next 12 months. In tandem, RBI should lower interest rates and create dif- ferential rates for small apartments and affordable housing.”
For any sort of development in the country R C Sinha urged there should be a common political view from all the parties after a due discussion and consensus, including people participation. “This could take time, but will ensure smooth execution once the project is started. The bureaucrats and officers should be allowed to work on a project without interference. “To develop new cities, officers should be selected strategically and given autonomy to work without outdated regulations. They should be rewarded for performance and held accountable for shortcomings. I've seen success with this approach, and there are many capable officers, if given the freedom to work without interference can show great results.”
THE PARADIGM SHIFTS
Dr Hiranandani was of the view that the Supreme Court intervening to say the entire slum redevelopment must take place is a major gamechanger. “Now we can see the government intervention which is leading to redevelopment of cities which private sector has also taken up. Though, we have a long way to go. For the first time we are also seeing government focus on rental housing in the recent budget. We will have to make a radical change in the coming years for rental housing to become an organized segment similar to western countries. While great amount of work is being done by the government, I think a little more focus will actually create values for Indian cities.”
R C Sinha expressed, “Presently, there is no single holistic architectural, transportation or infrastructure view from the government as a combined planning strategy. Land pooling is one of the ways to construct more cities, where land becomes a resource and a source for building infrastructure & townships. Mumbai has 603 sq kms of area and MMR has 6000 sq kms of area, can’t we get this land somewhere else. We can build 100s of cities that will attract the IT and other industry as they will be environment friendly,with better amenities.”
Bureaucrats and officers should be selected strategically and given autonomy to work without outdated regulations and unnecessary interference - R C SINHA
The aspirations of India and the real sector are growing. It is now 'Dil Mange More' - DR. NIRANJAN HIRANANDANI
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