NEW DELHI: The Punjab and Haryana high court order, directing the Haryana government to allow only those construction activities which are part of the regional plan approved by the NCR Planning Board has spelt big trouble for builders in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt.

Till now, the Gurgaon-Manesar sub-regional plan of has not been approved by the NCR Planning Board. The court has prohibited any further acquisition of land by private developers, grants of licenses and change of land use by the authority.

The court had given the direction while hearing petitions filed by farmers challenging the acquisition of land by developers and grant of licences by the authority allowing private builders to develop the plots.

Private developers were shocked to find that in the case of Gurgaon-Manesar and other regions of Haryana falling in NCR, the state government has overlooked the basic requirement of getting NCR Planning Board’s prior approval of the master plan, said real estate developers body NAREDCO.

Executive director of Avlon group, Ajay Singhal, who is also the vice-president of another developers’ association, CREDAI, said when the industry is going through a rough patch, any such news that create confusion in the mind of investors and end-users affect the sentiment further.

After 2005, to ensure better co-ordination among the various areas of the NCR, it had been proposed that all the sub-regional development plans of an area within the NCR will need to be approved by the NCR Planning Board. Without the approval of the NCRPB, the master plan of the area will not have any legal sanctity and the local authority cannot approve any development plan or changes in land use in the area. The high court has taken a serious view of this.

NAREDCO says that approval of sub-regional plan in the case of Haryana should be taken up by the state government and NCRPB on priority and cleared at the earliest to save developers and home buyers, who have already invested, from unnecessary harassment and also to clear the roadblocks for new projects.

While submitting before the court in the third week of January, the local authority assured the court that it would approach the NCR Planning Board within two weeks with the sub-regional plan for its approval.

In 2012, developers and buyers of residential projects in Noida Extension had faced difficulties because of a similar situation. In fact, the private developers had to wait for almost six months for the approval of sub regional plan by NCR Planning Board before they could resume work.

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