GUWAHATI: P K Sharma, President of the Assam Real Estate & Infrastructure Developers Association (AREIDA) on Saturday, September 21 stated that the state is facing grave difficulty in doing business in Assam.
“The difficulty of doing business in Assam for the real estate industry, is so serious that let alone outside investment, even the local investment is fleeing to other states where state governments have provided far more conducive working conditions,” said Sharma.
He explained in a statement that the Assam Ease of Doing Business Act 2016, was notified in June 2016 and was the first notification of the present government and it kindled hope of a new Assam. This was followed by another notification in May 2017, which mandated a single window online applications to be submitted at the online portal and at the same time, mandating deemed approval of applications after 15 days of submission and deemed approval of occupancy after 30 days of application.
“Not a single provision of these notified regulations have been implemented till today and every provision has been blatantly violated. Further Assam is the only state in India which is operating with an outdated multiple window building bylaw where applicants have to run from table to table and from office to office for months sometimes years on end for approval. To compound the woes this regulations contains 28 serious errors, details of which have been duly documented several times, in as many as four official technical reports since Feb 2014,” added Sharma.
In addition, he explained that real estate regulations are at the core of major industries in Assam, be it the construction of tourism facilities, hotels, resorts, hospitals and healthcare, institutional buildings, factories, housing complexes, commercial complexes, logistic infrastructure or affordable housing.
“Assam had a tremendous potential in some of these areas and this association had worked hard and mobilized investment commitment of Rs 15,000 crores where potential investors from across the country had signed 67 MOU’s in the real estate sector during the Advantage Assam Global Investors Summit, held in February 2018,” added Sharma.
He further added that a firm commitment was made to investors by the Government of Assam that we would have the most investor friendly regulatory framework and the best building by laws in the country. However, unfortunately, at the state government level, everything was forgotten after the Summit and not a single commitment was honoured. The MOU’s proved worthless as these were completely disregarded by the dealing officials of the concerned departments and all have since expired without a single project having materialised. The proposed investors have already diverted to other states.
“The real estate industry in Assam, which has a very significant contribution to the economy and employment generation is in a very critical crisis and we call upon the state government to engage with the stakeholders and take firm and decisive steps urgently to save it from total collapse,” expressed Sharma.
{{uhEPCQjDXUc8dZVvJBuY}}
