Indian cities may soon see buildings with over 100 floors coming up as the process of easing floor norms is on. This comes in the wake of Hyderabad announcing a relaxed floor area ratio (FAR) in some parts of the city in 2007, attracting more realty projects within one year. The projects include a Rs 6,000-crore 100-floor trade tower to be constructed by a consortium led by Anil Ambani?s Reliance Energy.
Ravi Ramu, director and chief financial officer of Puravankara Projects Ltd, said the FAR relaxation would add more value to projects and the land bank. Puravankara has also announced a Rs 3,500-crore commercial and residential project in hi-tech Hyderabad, and it is sure to benefit from the relaxed FAR in the area.
The urban infrastructure cost hovers around Rs 1.75 crore a hectare. The reason for this high cost are the development control regulations that allow a maximum of 2 FAR in most Indian cities compared with a 4-40 FAR in top foreign cities. An addition of 56 million people to the Indian urban population in five years means a capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 3.7 trillion for infrastructure alone. But, if the FAR is doubled, the country can save about Rs 35,000 crore in infrastructure capex annually and Rs 55,000 crore in maintenance and fuel savings as well, say experts.
To begin with, the Andhra Pradesh government has instructed its civic authorities to relax the FAR, while Jaipur, Pune, Chennai, Kochi and Bangalore are in the process of doing so. In fact, the Bangalore Development Authority has permitted an FAR of 4 in some parts of the city against the present 2.
