Elusive tenements
Ambika Sharma finds that in the absence of clear-cut guidelines, housing clause for economically weaker section remains just on papers

WITH the industrial workforce swelling to nearly one lakh in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area, provision of housing for the economically weaker sections (EWS) has failed to catch the fancy of both the realtor as well as the worker.

The overtly high rentals ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 24,000 continue to act as a deterrent for the workforce leading to their frequent migration to and from different states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh. Though the state government had enacted the Himachal Pradesh Apartments and Property Regulation Act, 2005, where a separate provision for the EWS had been laid yet it has failed to reach the target segment.

As per the Act, a promoter, whose total area of the colony is 40 bighas or more, is supposed to reserve at least 5 per cent of the number of residential plots and apartments for the EWS. While not many realtors fall under this category, a few who do, don’t take up such projects on priority. Even when it is done at the fag end of the project, the price of such dwelling unit stretches much beyond what industrial workers can afford.

The instructions, however, are brief. They do not include major parameters like the very crucial definition of the EWS and the price tag within which these flats have to be sold is not defined. This defeats the very purpose of the scheme as many times the buyers turn out to be corporate executives.

CEO of Himuda S.K. Sharma says the allotment of flats under EWS is fully supervised by the agency and it is ensured that such flats are sold at 25 per cent lesser rates to those falling under this category. He says as of now only one builder had completed first phase of construction and has come up with EWS flats while the rest are yet to reach that stage. He, however, agrees that the EWS had not been defined explicitly with respect to monthly income.

Even a scheme launched by the Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority (Himuda) to provide low cost one-room tenements to the industrial workers could not find requisite buyers. Though Himuda has allotted as many as 352 one-room tenements at Bhatoli Kalan near Baddi yet only few among them were bought by the industrial workers. According to the officials of the Himuda, “only 100 applications were received from industrial workers while the rest belonged to office executives. Subsequent allottees were chosen by a draw of lots. We had initially pegged the price of these flats at Rs 2.80 lakh, so as to facilitate economically weaker sections to buy these flats, but the response was not very forthcoming.”

The problem with this scheme appears to be the uncertainty dogging the industrial labour. They prefer to shell out Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,400 per month as room rent but are reluctant to spend a similar amount as monthly instalment towards the one-room tenements.

Himuda has been endeavouring to sell more such tenements to benefit the industrial workers. While a total of 828 flats are in the final stages of completion, the authority plans to sell them at prices ranging between Rs 3 and Rs 4.5 lakh. Officials, however, feel that instead of such tenements it is the requirement of labour hostels, equipped with mess and lodging facility, which would prove more beneficial.

Since industrial workers keep moving from place to place they are not very keen to own a residence but prefer anything, which they could pay for whatever time, they stay in a particular area. The role of the Town and Country Planning Department is also restricted to merely ensure that the building maps of such builders carried EWS housing plans.

An area dotted with agents
Sanjeev Singh Bariana chances upon a small residential spot in Ludhiana from where nearly 100 property dealers run their business 

STREETS of Basant Avenue, located next to Dugri across Sidhwan canal, appears as if it just rained property dealers in less than 300 acres residential area. There are more than 100 property dealers operating in the small residential area that lies on the outskirts of the city limits. A majority of them are registered dealers, operating from independent well-furnished offices.

The open space and the well-planned infrastructure has made the locality an attractive venture for investors in property. Besides, a small number of people constructing houses, a majority of property seekers have zeroed in on the area with a view to invest that “assures high returns”. “We call the Basant Avenue an investor’s haven,” he added.

Higher returns on property have led to a sizeable number of investors from other cities, even states, in certain cases to throng the area for property-related queries. Anil Kumar, a consultant, said: “I had three families from Uttar Pradesh, who came to my office asking for sites they could invest in. In the final deal, they pooled in money and bought a corner plot. They were pretty candid in confessing that this was just an investment venture.”

The avenue has approximately 60 registered dealers who have the names of their concerns painted and pasted all over the avenue. This category also has offices, some of them highly furnished. More than three-dozen “consultants” operate from their residences. “I am a retired school teacher. I was able to make a deal for an investor and made a hefty gain in the exercise. I got to know that I had got the investor’s a deal better than one that was being promised by a real estate consultant who operated from an office,” Shyam Singh, a local resident, said.

“There is nothing big about property dealing business. One makes 1 per cent easy money on the deals so many have taken the chance of opening an office. The rates have crashed and a number of offices have already closed. So many offices in a small area came up only as a copy-cat exercise,” Sumit Sharma, a property dealer, says.

Dharam Singh, another dealer, says: “The rates of the property varies between Rs 1,500 per square yard and Rs 15,000. The price is based on the location. Residences near the market place are most highly priced.”

Gurnam Singh, managing director of G.S. Properties, says the property facing the east is priced slightly higher as compared to that facing west or south.” He says the boom has subsided and the business had gone slow.

Vicky, a dealer, says the average price of property in the area was Rs 7,000 per square yard. There is certain property priced as high as Rs 15,000 per square yard. However, the price is largely because of the location of the property. “One thing is very clear. That the boom had slowed down and a number of property dealers in the area had downed shutters.” 

Zirakpur mall bags award
Pradeep Sharma

ZIRAKPUR, township of shopping malls and apartments, continues to create ripples in the real estate sector. Even as the township on the strategic Chandigarh-New Delhi and Chandigarh-Shimla highways readies to wake up to the shopping mall culture, one of its shopping mall-cum-multiplex - Paras Down Town Square - has bagged the Indian Property Awards, 2007.

A flagship project of the Paras Build Call Private Limited, one of the largest malls in Chandigarh’s periphery with four multiplexes coming up on 3,50,000 square feet,
has been adjudged in the category of best commercial projects at the award ceremony held in New Delhi recently.

The upcoming mall, slated for opening in January next year, shall be catering to the middle and upper-middle segments and shall house a business hotel, four-screen multiplex by Adlabs, food court, children’s entertainment corner, double-level basement parking, with the presence of top brands promising a world-class shopping experience.

The entire mall is equipped with intelligent air -conditioning system.

Manesar
On realtors' cross hairs
Presence of big industrial houses and investments in SEZ is attracting builders, says R. Suryamurthy

AFTER playing a pivotal role in the commercialisation and urbanisation of the country, metropolitan cities have begun to lose some of their sheen. Crumbling infrastructure, unrealistic land prices, overcrowding and choking pollution levels have taken a heavy toll of cities like Mumbai and Delhi, stripping them of traditional charm and attractiveness.

A host of smaller cities and towns have emerged as the favoured investment locations and new growth centres.

High property prices in these metros was one of the principal reasons why many companies, MNCs in particular, began looking for newer options and cities which satisfied requirements of accessibility, business facilities, skilled labour force and affordability.

Thus, there was a gradual shift towards smaller cities and towns, which were offering all conveniences of metros, but were not plagued by ills. Gurgaon and now, Manesar, are perfect examples of emerging cities on the outskirts of the metro, where MNCs and Indian companies shifted.

Manesar has all ingredients of being the next commercial hub with better infrastructural facilities and tax incentive base, that is being the first licensed industrial model township.

It would be one of the India’s major outsourcing hubs, housing major multinationals such as Honda, Baxter, Suzuki, Stanley, Mitsubishi, Nippon, and Toyota.

Manesar is home to many manufacturing units of repute such as largest car and motorcycle producers in India, namely Maruti Udyog and Hero Honda.

In future, corporate majors like Suzuki have planned to invest Rs 2,500 crore by 2010 to make Manesar plant a manufacturing hub for diesel engines.

Japan also will be investing more in Manesar in near future. Samsung Telecommunications India Pvt Ltd will also be investing 850 crore to start commercial production of mobile handset in India by 2010. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India will invest 300 crore in two years to increase the capacity at its plant in Manesar.

Such huge commercialisation, has not only triggered the need for office space but has also created a huge demand for residential properties for people who will be working in future and would require a home of their own.

The proposed Expressway to Jaipur and SEZs to be developed by Reliance, DLF, Unitech and Rahejas are already adding value to the Manesar apartments. Driven by positive growth and large-scale investments in SEZ, real estate in Manesar is booming at a swirling pace and in a recent survey, the town has emerged as one of the top three choices for real estate investment.

Also, recent notification for 680 acres of land, earmarked by the HSIIDC for residential development of IMT staff has been withdrawn by the Haryana government, thus creating a housing vacuum in the area. 

GRound Realty
Showcase the staircase
Try stones on treads and stainless steel railing as support, 
suggests Jagvir Goyal

IN residential units, stairs have no more remained a mere mode of access to the upper storeys. These add real splendour and stateliness to a house when located thoughtfully and decorated aesthetically. Often, space constraints are the enemy in their planning. Also special care has to be taken against their being slippery while choosing the finishing materials. Here are a few guidelines:

Location

Finalising the location of staircase in a house is a major decision as full plan of the house is affected by it. The location of lobby and drawing room at first floor are fully linked to the location of staircase. So decide carefully. A staircase can be located inside or outside depending upon the space available. If the space is available, build attractive looking stairs inside the lobby or dining room. These will add grandeur to the house. Use of glass and wood is the latest fad that makes the inside of stairs look great. However, a staircase built outside the external walls of the house may come under common use. It is better to use RCC, masonry, stone or iron if the purpose is such.

As per Vaastu, a staircase should not be located in the NE direction. It is best if it is located on the south or SW direction. Further, steps should climb from east to west or north to south. Vaastu even suggests keeping the number of steps as odd not even.

Types

Staircases can be straight run, dog-legged, quarter turn, three-quarter turn, circular, spiral, elliptical or helicoidal. The material used can be RCC, wood, masonry, glass, stone or iron. If yours is a marla house, choose a dog-legged staircase. It is named so because it resembles a dog’s leg. Where there is a space constraint, spiral staircase should be used. If the building has a special architecture, use helicoidal staircase. In all cases, keep the steps as wide as possible.

Structural basics

Staircases, commonly used in buildings, are with sloping slabs from floor to floor with an intermediate landing. Provide a 30-degree slope to horizontal for such stairs. In no case, the slope should be more than 40 degrees to horizontal. Transverse width of a step is called tread and it should not be less than 250 mm. Front depth of a step is called riser and should not be more than 160 mm. Provide beams at the top and bottom of each flight. The thickness of sloping slab is called waist and shouldn’t be kept less than 120 mm. Keep the steps 4 feet wide with tread as 25 cm and riser as 15. All treads must be of equal width. All risers must be of equal depth. Never vary the chosen dimensions of tread and riser in a staircase. It may result in false stepping and the person going up or coming down may slip down. Plan the location of landing carefully. Considering the total height from top of lower floor to top of upper floor and considering the landing as a step, the exact depth of riser should be worked out.

Reinforcement

Provide steel reinforcement at the bottom of waist slab with a concrete cover of 15 mm. This reinforcement should be taken inside the bottom beam. However, this can’t be done at the top end. At the top end, if this reinforcement is bent along the bottom of landing or floor, it will have a tendency to lift off. Therefore, here the reinforcement should be taken to the top face of landing or slab and bent horizontal. To compensate its absence at the bottom face, provide extra bars of same diameter at same spacing; take these to the top face of sloping waist slab and bend along the slab slope. Such a provision of steel reinforcement will never allow the slab to fail.

Cantilever steps

If you choose separate cantilever slabs for each step with a central sloping beam, keep the beam exactly at the centre of steps so that the two cantilever portions balance each other. If the steps are 4 feet wide, a beam of one-foot width should suffice. But depth of beam may workout to be quite large, in the range of two to two-and-a-half feet with 16 mm diameter steel at bottom. The steps should have more thickness at beam end and taper to less thickness of about 2 inch at free end. Eight mm diameter steel should be provided in steps also. The junctions of steps with the beam should be given fillet finish. Also, don’t forget to provide 8 mm diameter stirrups in the beam. One more style that is becoming popular is of cantilever steps coming out of a sidewall. Each step is independent and there is gap between every two steps. In this case, see that the thickness of wall is adequate to provide required anchorage to the independent steps. If the steps are 4-feet wide, these must have an anchorage of at least 15 inch in the wall.

Tread-Riser

Another type of stairs becoming very popular is the one with tread-riser form of slab. The bottom of such a staircase is not plain but has the shape of steps going up. In a way, these stairs consist of a single zigzag slab. In such a staircase, load at each node of tread-riser has to be worked out by the structural engineer. The design is complex but generally available with the architect as a standard design. In such a staircase, one must provide steel stirrups both ways - horizontally as well as vertically. Another striking feature of this type of stairs is that the stirrups are of larger diameter of steel, say 12 mm, while the steel running along width of steps is of lesser diameter of 6 or 8 mm.

Spiral form

For a spiral staircase, provide a central pillar with cantilever steps supported on it. Steps in such a staircase vary in width and are called winders. Keep such a size of the central pillar that winders have minimum possible variation in tread width. Winders have less tread width at inner face and more tread width at outer face. These leave a part of the foot unsupported when walking up or down along the inner side of staircase. Spiral staircases, therefore, need careful climbing and should be chosen only if unavoidable.

Railing

Use of polished wood on steps is like inviting to slip. In case you plan to use stone on steps, try Baroda Green stone. It looks beautiful. Give double mould nosing to treads with about ¾-inch projection beyond risers. While using stone on steps, try stainless steel railing for stairs. Many types of SS pillars in colours matching the stone used are available. These are provided with base brackets, which can easily be fixed to the bolts embedded in the steps. Even side brackets can be provided if more clear width of steps is wanted. Clad the posts with toughened glass. Choose a shade that matches the stone in colour. Keep thickness of glass as minimum 8 mm. However, 10 mm thickness is desirable. The stainless steel post supplier will also provide horizontal runners to support the glass wall. Ask the glass supplier to drill holes as per brackets attached to the posts to allow zero play in fixing of glass. Even if the glass is not used, use 3 to 5 inclined runners to divide the vertical open space between the steps and the top rail. Top handrail can be in wood or stainless steel as per individual’s taste. Use glass of reputed make.

The stone, glass and stainless steel combination will present a highly attractive finish and such a railing can be erected on one day.

Happy building!

— The writer is SE (civil), PSEB. He can be reached through www.jagvirgoyal.com

Construction boom catalyses chemical industry’s growth

Construction chemicals, which were almost non-existent in the Indian construction industry 10 years ago, are gaining increasing importance.

Surging construction activity and 100 per cent FDI in real estate are giving a fillip to the construction chemical market in India, which grew by an estimated 24.1 per cent in 2006. Any company that realises the importance and potential of this nascent market - projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9 per cent from 2007 to 2013 - can capitalise on considerable growth opportunities.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Indian Construction Chemicals Markets, finds that the market revenue was estimated to be Rs 10 billion in 2006 and is likely to reach Rs 40 billion by 2013. “The Indian government’s approval for allowing 100 per cent FDI in the real estate sector has given a major boost to the already fast growing construction industry,” notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Dominic Britto.

“Construction chemicals accounts for only 2 per cent of overall costs, but the benefits are in multiples; rising awareness about such advantages, coupled with the growth in the construction industry is set to drive the Indian market for construction chemicals.”

The construction industry is the key end user of the construction chemicals that includes construction of infrastructure, industries, as well as commercial and residential buildings. Construction chemicals are also used for repair and maintenance of these structures and comprise around 11 per cent of the total demand.

Rising awareness, changing lifestyles and, most importantly, the increasing spending power of end users will be the key drivers in the sustained expansion of the Indian construction chemicals market. At present, the absence of quality standards for the manufacture as well as application of construction chemicals is a major challenge.

This has the potential of leading to price wars at the cost of quality, thereby eroding margins to such an extent that new companies might be reluctant to enter this market. This is further likely to lead to highly unsatisfied end users getting substandard products and services and will have a major impact on the industry as a whole.

“To succeed in a situation where established quality standards are lacking, companies need to develop their own standards and build powerful brands that will not only promote awareness about the benefits of construction chemicals, but also set standards for the industry to follow,” advises Britto. — ANI

TAX tips
By S.C. Vasudeva
Loan not advisable against gain bonds

Q. I sold plot of land in January 2007 and after indexing the cost of such plot and a long-term capital gain of Rs 10 lakh has been earned thereon. I had purchased the requisite tax saving bonds within the period of six months of the date of transfer of the plot. I am in need of money. Can I offer these bonds to bank as a security for obtaining a loan? Will it have any effect on the taxability of the capital gain earned on the sale of the plot about which I have sought an exemption?

— R.S. Kathpalia, Ludhiana

A. Section 54EC of the IT Act, 1961 (the Act), which provides for the exemption of capital gains from taxability in case bonds specified in the said section are purchased within six months of the date of transfer of a capital asset. The section, specifically, prohibits the transfer of such bonds within a period of three years from the date of purchase of such bonds. It has also been provided in the said section that even taking a loan on the security of bonds or otherwise converting these bonds into money within three years from the date of purchase of the bonds would be construed a transfer of the bonds. I would not, therefore, advise you to take the step of offering these bonds to bankers as a security for obtaining the loan. I may add that in case the bonds are transferred within a period of three years, the exempted capital gain will become taxable as long-term in the year in which these bonds are transferred.

(iii) You can claim interest on interest where amounts have been wrongfully retained by authorities. This would be under general law. In this connection you may refer to a decision of Supreme Court in the case of Sandvik Asia Ltd. vs. CIT (280 ITR 643). In this case the court allowed interest on interest @ 9 per cent on amount of interest on income tax refund retained wrongfully by the Income-tax department. It is a very detailed decision.

A. The issue raised in the query has number of ramifications. I would advise you to consult a lawyer practising on the civil law before taking any decision with regard to the purchase of property in question.

The writer can be contacted at sc@scvasudeva.com