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Realty Companies May Gain From UP Govt's Relax Norms On Payment Period For Land Acquisitions The country's fund-starved real estate developers are likely to benefit from a recent move by the Uttar Pradesh government to relax norms on payment period for land acquisitions, experts say. The Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government had said it is planning to come out with a relief package for acquisition of land to develop integrated townships, and metro cities in the state. The government plans to extend the payment period for acquisition of the land to 10 years as against the prescribed norm of five-seven years. The relaxation, if approved by the cabinet, will give a breather to cash-strapped developers who are in negotiations with banks and mutual funds to defer repayments and restructure loans. Several of them have also deferred projects following a slump in demand. Land accounts for more than 50 per of the cost of a project. "By extending the installment duration, the govern

LIC Housing Finance Cuts Home Loan Rates By 100 bps, Across Various Loan Categories LIC Housing Finance (LICHF) has slashed lending rates for new borrowers by 100 basis points across various loan categories. Home loans up to Rs 30 lakh, irrespective of the tenure, would now be cheaper by 100 bps at 8.75 per cent, while for loans above Rs 30 lakh, the rates are lower at 9.75 per cent as against 10.75 per cent earlier. The new rates are effective from February 1. “Earlier, similar loans with a tenure up to five years charged 9.25 per cent and loans with tenure between five and 20 years attracted 9.75 per cent. Now we have decided to aggregate the two schemes and charge same interest rate,” said RR Nair, director & CEO, LIC Housing. About 80 per cent of LICHF’s loans fall under the Rs 30 lakh category, with an average loan size at Rs 16 lakh. After the meeting with stand-in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, many public sector bank chiefs, including UCO Bank and Corporation Bank, had

Centre Clears Way For 2nd Metro Expansion Phase, Gurgaon And Noida Daily commuters between the national capital and its satellite towns Gurgaon and Noida can finally heave a sigh of relief with the Government finally tying up funds for the second phase of the metro network, albeit at a cost of more than Rs 4,400 crore. The expansion is to be partly funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). As the deadline for Commonwealth Games approaches, the Centre has hurriedly cleared the way for Delhi Metro's second expansion phase, which will connect the city with Noida and Gurgaon. JICA, which had earlier funded 60 per cent of the costs of Phase I of the Delhi Metro, had refused to bear the full impact of the cost escalation. "The JICA has now agreed to finance 30 per cent of the required additional amount of around Rs 4,400 crore. For the remaining amount of around Rs 2,500 crore, the Government of India and the state government will equally fund the equity," sa

Meltdown Hits Mega Noida Project, Unable To Pay For The Land As Agreed So badly has Noida been hit by the economic meltdown that its most ambitious commercial area project, to be built on 3.82 lakh square metres in Sector 94, may not come through as the consortium concerned is unable to pay for the land as agreed. The builders consortium, Business Parks and Town Planners (BPTP), is learnt to have written to New Okhla Industrial Development Authority to say that it is unable to pay it at the agreed rates. The consortium had beaten some major developers in an open bid for constructing a commercial and business complex in Sector 94 on March 11 last year. It had bid for the land at the rate of over Rs 1.30 lakh per square meter. And, while the consortium made an initial payment of more that Rs 1,300 crore of the Rs 5,000 crore at the time, as registration money and allotment money, it was unable to make any more payments. Confirming this, NOIDA chairman, Lalit Srivastava, told this corresp

Have Home Loan? EMIs Are Set To Fall, Home Loan Rates May Fall To 7% By April If fresh home loan borrowers had reason to celebrate on Saturday when State Bank of India (SBI) cut its rate to 8%, existing borrowers too can look forward to paying lower EMI very soon. On Monday there were strong signals of public sector banks cutting their prime lending rates (PLR) in response to further prodding from the government this time in the form of Pranab Mukherjee to cut interest rates. As floating home loan rates are tied to PLR, any cut in PLR will mean lower rates for existing customers too. Banks like Uco Bank and Corporation Bank have already announced cuts in PLR ranging from 0.75 to one percentage point and others have indicated they are likely to do so within a week. SBI chairman O P Bhatt has also indicated that the bank will cut its PLR soon. So, it's a question of time before loan takers from PSU banks get relief on their EMIs. But what about those who've borrowed from private

Technical Feasibility Survey For Hindon Expressway Between New Delhi And DehraDun The Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP) governments today decided to carry out a technical feasibility survey for the proposed eight-lane Hindon express highway between New Delhi and Dehra Dun. The survey will also find out the financial viability of the project. This was decided at a high-level meeting here, presided over by Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri. Besides Khanduri, UP Chief Secretary Atul Gupta and his Uttarakhand counterpart Indu Kumar Pande and a host of other top officials were present at the meeting. The move follows the decision by both Uttarakhand and UP to jointly build the expressway from New Delhi to Dehra Dun that will shorten the distance considerably. Feedback Ventures is the consultant of the project. “We are hopeful for the completion of the technical survey in six months,” an official said. The meeting also mulled strategy for early completion of the expressway along the H