West Bengal government wants to bring real estate projects coming up on plots more than “three to four cottah” in size and with six or more apartments under the scanner of the West Bengal Real Estate Regulatory Authority (WBRERA), housing minister Aroop Biswas said on Tuesday.
Under the West Bengal Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules 2021, projects with more than eight apartments or coming up on land measuring more than 7.47 cottah are under the scanner of the authority.
“We have seen that problems are more pronounced in projects coming up on small plots. Since the rule only allows RERA to scan projects coming up on plots measuring more than 7.47 cottah, we have decided to reduce the land size,” Biswas said.
“Once the change is formalised, projects with six or more flats and coming up on plots measuring more than three to four cottahs will come under RERA’s surveillance.”
The minister was speaking at the inauguration of a website of the authority — www. rera.wb.gov.in — that will allow buyers and developers to lodge complaints online. The complaints will be forwarded to an appellate authority under the West Bengal Real Estate Appellate Tribunal.
“A proposal to empower the regulatory authority to scan real estate projects coming up on smaller plots has been sent to the finance department. The central RERA act allows states to make necessary additions without altering the founding tenets,” Biswas told The Telegraph on the sidelines of the programme.
“The housing department’s proposal will be takenup by the state cabinet,” saida senior official in the Bengal government.
“The change, once implemented, will bring many small real estate projects under scrutiny.
” All ongoing projects with more than eight apartments and coming up on plots measuring over 7.47 cottah that have not registered with there gulatory authority will have to do so within three months, senior officials said.
“Once a project is registered... the developer has to deposit 70 per cent of the money collected for it in a specified bank account. The money will have to be spent on the project,” the official said.
“We welcome the move by the state government to brings smaller projects under the regulatory authority’s scanner,” said Siddharth Pansari, president of Credai Bengal.