GURGAON: GMDA is looking to home owners and buyers to fund its SPR redevelopment project.
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority is planning to impose a 1% duty on transfer of immovable properties located along the 14km stretch of the Southern Peripheral Road from Ghata village to NH-8 near Kherki Daula for the next three years.
If the proposal is implemented, buyers and owners will have to pay 1% of the purchase amount of a property to GMDA at the time of registration. Officials said on Monday that on average, a property owner may have to pay around Rs 2 lakh as transfer duty. The duty will be applicable on sale, gifting and exchange of properties.
Lakhs of residents live in sectors, including those from 58 to 79 that dot the SPR. The cost of properties in the area can range between Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 4 crore, according to residents.
Officials said that the GMDA Act allows the Authority to levy transfer duty on properties within its jurisdiction.“The different modes of funding for this project have been proposed to the government and imposing a 1% user fee is one of the ways to collect the money. The fund collected from this will be utilised specifically for SPR redevelopment and the duty will be charged for three years only,” a GMDA official said.
GMDA earned Rs 918 crore between April 2022 and February 2023 and it has in its coffers around Rs 500 crore in revenues from stamp duty, but the Authority has several big-ticket projects in the pipeline. These include infrastructural revamp of the Rampura-Pataudi road, construction of underpasses at Vatika Chowk and Atul Kataria Chowk, and renovation of a master stormwater drain, among others.
With this transfer duty, GMDA expects to earn Rs 125 crore annually, totaling Rs 375 crore over the next three years. Private developers could pitch in another Rs 285 crore. The state government’s town and country planning department may also deposit external development funds for areas along SPR, which had been gathered by it earlier, amounting to Rs 171.2 crore.
While these will be able to cover most of the SPR project cost – Rs 831 crore of the total estimated Rs 845 crore – GMDA may use earnings from developing wayside amenities on roads such as advertisements and by leasing space under flyovers.
“If needed, it may ask the state finance department for funds by floating bonds,” the official cited above said.
The funding proposal was granted in-principle approval by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds charge as GMDA chairman, last month. A final nod is pending to implement this plan.
On Monday, residents questioned why they were being made to pay for the SPR project. “We are already paying stamp duty and property tax. Levying another 1% is unjust. There are other ways for the government to generate funds for development work. Property rates are already on the higher side in this area and this can dampen the spirit of middle-class families that aspire to buy a home,” said Neehar Ranjan, RWA president of Astaire Gardens society in Sector 70A.
The SPR revamp, which has been on the cards since March 2019, includes widening of the main carriageway, construction of underpasses, flyovers, service road and footpath, introducing cycle tracks, green cover and developing the drainage system.
