Industry, citizen groups oppose proposal to reduce permissible FAR
If the State government has its way, all city corporation areas in the State will soon see their permissible floor area ratio (FAR) considerably reduced. Instead, a premium FAR, which property owners will have to buy from the local civic body, will be introduced. The Directorate of Town and Country Planning has notified the draft rules of Common Zoning Rules on July 1 and given citizens a month’s time to submit objections. The proposal has already met with stiff resistance from both, the real estate market and citizens groups, who argue that the move is only aimed at creating an artificial market for Transferable Development Rights (TDR) and premium FAR. They argue that if the draft rules become a reality, it will only lead to an inflation in property costs. L.Shashikumar, director, Town Planning, told , that the aim of the move was to reduce stress on infrastructure and curtail the growing density in cities from Bengaluru, FAR is the ratio of the area of the plot to the built-up area, permissible limits of which vary depending on the width of the road on which the plot is located. For instance, as it stands today, permissible FAR ranges from 1.75 to 3.25, depending on the width of the road. As per the new draft rules the range has been reduced to 1.4 (road width 6 m) to a maximum of 2 (road width of 24 m and above). Under the premium category, FAR can be used up to 4. The draft rules follow an earlier proposal made by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to reduce permissible FAR in the core city area to 1. “This essentially means that to be able to build the same built-up area say of 3.25 FAR, we need to buy a premium FAR of 1.25, which will only add to the cost of the project leading to a hike in property prices,” said Suresh Hari, vice-president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Bengaluru. He added that CREDAI was compiling its objections to the draft rules, which will be submitted soon. K.Ramesh, of Bengaluru South Citizens’ Forum and a property consultant, said the move amounted to creating an artificial market for TDR and a revenue source through premium FAR. “Even the revised TDR is not finding many takers as there is no reliable market for TDR in the city. This is arm-twisting,” he said. While TDR is calculated based on two times the guidance value of the land given up, premium FAR will cost 50% of the Guidance Value of the proposed built-up area. Even as Mr. Shashikumar argues that premium FAR will work out cheaper than TDR, industry insiders claim otherwise. “Premium FAR will be a fixed price we need to pay the civic body, while TDR is market-driven where we have room for negotiation,” a senior realtor argued.
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