Punjab for affordable house policy

The Punjab government has decided to frame a policy for mega projects to provide houses to the public at affordable rates. An official spokesperson of the department of town and country planning said the policy would incorporate provisions like the maximum permissible area for group housing in a project, where group housing is proposed as a part of plotted development that would not exceed 20 per cent of the total area of the project.

However, this condition would not be applicable for the area of the project that falls in the mixed land use zone of the master plan i.e. if more than 20 per cent area of the project falls in mixed land use zone, the promoter could use the entire area under mixed land use zone as group hosing.

In case the promoter proposes more than 20 per cent area of the project under group housing, the entire additional area would be counted as saleable area of the total project. The next provision of the proposed policy would be the area under group housing would be considered as a part of the total area of the project for fulfilment of the area norms for the project.

However at the planning stage this area would be planned and developed separately as pre group housing norms and the saleable area for the rest of the project under plotted development would be calculated after excluding the area under flatted development. The promoter would have to fulfill the norms for plotted and group housing separately. For the provision of the public amenities the population of the entire project (including area under group housing), would be taken into account.

The area under group housing in mixed development project may be allowed in more than one pocket however, the area of each pocket shall not be less than 5 acre.