Real estate developers should work more closely with city municipalities to create the physical infrastructure needed for their residential and commercial projects, a senior official from the ministry of housing and urban affairs has said.Addressing a real estate conference organised by industry body CII, D Thara, secretary (department of capital development) in the ministry, urged developers to assess the impact of their projects beyond their own boundaries and coordinate more closely with municipal agencies.“Every development creates an interaction with the larger urban environment, and we need to understand and mitigate the externalities that construction can create for the city,” she said, according to a CII statement.
Focus on water, sewage and resource use
Thara asked developers to pay greater attention to critical facilities such as rainwater harvesting, water recycling and sewage treatment as part of their projects.Calling for a new public-private paradigm in urban development, she said developers should work closely with municipal agencies and consider the wider impact of each project — including the water it displaces, sewage it generates, energy it consumes and infrastructure it requires.“There is no dialogue between officials from the municipalities and real estate companies,” she said, according to PTI.Thara also urged the real estate industry to adopt a broader definition of value, one that takes into account not just property prices but also the infrastructure burden, resource consumption and environmental impact associated with development.
Industry seeks faster, integrated approvals
Sriram Khattar, co-chairman of the CII National Committee on Real Estate & Housing and vice chairman and MD of DLF Rental Business, said the sector’s role had expanded beyond constructing physical buildings.“Real estate is no longer just about brick and mortar. It is a living fabric of communities, shaping how people connect, work, live, shop, entertain and experience their surroundings,” he said, as quoted by news agency PTI.Khattar said the focus was increasingly shifting from physical structures to creating inclusive, vibrant and sustainable environments that improve quality of life.Harshvardhan Bansal, chairman of CII Delhi State and co-founder of Unity Group, called for faster and more integrated approvals for development projects.“A true single-window system should allow applications to move simultaneously across different authorities, rather than developers having to approach each department separately,” he said.
