The real estate industry in Maharashtra, under the aegis of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), is organising a one-day convention, Advantage Maharashtra, on July 31, 2006 at the NCPA, Mumbai.The convention will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and will be attended by Deputy Chief Minster R R Patil, Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, Urban Development Minister Rajesh Tope and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.Planning on presentations range from introducing reforms to attracting funding, international trends and new age construction of malls and multiplexes.Shirish Godbole, secretary of CREDAI (Maharashtra), said: "The presentations will be made before the appropriate ministers with an emphasis on how this will impact development and attract foreign investment.""The state has a conversion of just 18% in the IT sector, and that speaks of its ability to attract investment." Lalit Kumar Jain, managing director of Kumar Builders and the convener of the proposed convention. Jain said: "The convention is an attempt by the real estate industry to seek reforms and bring about changes as red tape and bureaucracy are now endangering our business. We want to promote the idea of a single window clearance and uniform laws across the state that will have a few minor changes as required by an individual city."Pointing out to the present system where a Pune builder needs to get clearances from 27 government departments for each project and a Mumbai builder needs 56 No Objection Certificates (NOCs), Jain said: "The present system has many loopholes and slows down productivity thus increasing costs for the end consumer. We are interested in a transparent system, which will allow mass production and reduce costs." Chief among the issues to be presented before the ministers and chief secretaries are the repeal of The Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act, the need to frame a state housing/real estate policy on the lines of the National Housing and Habitat Policy adopted by the Parliament, and a local funding scheme at the state level similar to the national fund -- Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
