Maha relaxes norms to attract investment

Mumbai: Relaxing certain norms to facilitate the ‘ease of doing business’, the state has allowed the industries, developers to go for self-declaration about not being in “funnel zone” and “CRZ”. It has also introduced randomized risk based inspection and self certification for labor and environment clearances, discontinued industrial location policy for Mumbai Metropolitan Region, increased FSI for agriculture and no development zone and online payment of all taxes.

Intending to attract more investment in Maharashtra, the state government brought in some reforms in the industries sector for ease of doing business. “The state has shown an increase in compliance to about 92 per cent, helping it secure a rank in the top ten states in 2016. The state is constantly working towards implementing reforms to ensure better performance this year. Maharashtra is one of the few states where the single window mechanism is supported by a truly effective online portal called MAITRI,” an official from the industries department said.

In the key reforms, the developers in Mumbai need no permission from the government to construct a building which is not in the funnel zone. The funnel zone spreads in western suburb areas Juhu, Santacruz, Vile Parle and Chandivli, which is meant for safe landing and take-off of the flights. “The developer can just give a self declaration that his project does not come under the funnel zone. The same is applicable for the CRZ norms. He has to give self declaration in the same way to reduce a process of seeking permission from the government,” the official added.

Also, the government has issued notification for increase in FSI from 0.2 to 1 for setting up industry in agriculture and no development zones across Maharashtra. The time to obtain construction permit in Mumbai has been reduced from 192 days to 60 days and the number of procedures are reduced from 27 to 11.