Maha RERA not to extend deadline for state builders

Mumbai: Gautam Chatterjee, chairman, Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Maha RERA), has refused to extend the deadline for registration of projects under the Act beyond July 31. According to him, around 20,000 applications are expected to be received online by end of the month. However, the number of applications received at present is just over 300.

Chatterjee on the sidelines of the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Realty and Infrastructure Summit, told reporters that he aimed to bring in transparency into the system for which developers would have to be compliant. All this would be done before the July 31 deadline. “We have no intention of extending the deadline and I won’t do that,” he confirmed.

The Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act 2016 has come into force from May 1 this year. Maharashtra established Maha RERA and became one of the first states to notify its rules under the Act. Chatterjee claimed that the state was completely prepared to take on this, giving no chance to extend the deadline even if the central authority did so.

Chatterjee said he had written to the state to bring projects that had been completed and hence, received occupation certificate after May 1 under MRERA’s purview. He stated, “I have written to the state government that projects which don't require to be registered under the Centre's RERA Act should have coverage under the Maharashtra Act, which will be actually replacing the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA) 1963”.

Chatterjee said that RERA would handle different aspects including formation of a legal unit that would be done after the building was ready.