The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, grappling with a slow market, has decided in its last board meeting that it will allow some commercial activity on industrial, institutional and educational land.

The Authority has named these businesses ‘supportive commercial activities’, which will include banking, running canteens and stationery shops and other such small units. The Authority has also decided it will not increase land rate in Noida.

Chief Executive Officer, Noida and Greater Noida Authority, Mohinder Singh said only those units will be allowed to operate which benefit industrial establishments and institutes. “There are, however, specific guidelines that will govern commercial activity on these lands,” Singh said.

Supportive commercial activities will be allowed for those industrial, institutional and educational units that are on a plot of more than 750 square metres, and have a road 12 metres wide in front of it. Singh said: “These commercial units will occupy a limited percentage of the floor area ratio (FAR) of that particular plot.”

In yet another crucial development, the Authority will allow builders to purchase ‘density’ — this means the builder can construct more flats of smaller sizes than those approved for a plot. The builder will have to pay the Authority an extra 10 per cent of the total cost of land for this.

For example, if a builder had permission to construct 1,000 flats, he can now make 50 per cent more or build 1,500 smaller flats by buying the ‘density’ with that additional 10 per cent. Singh said: “A builder can now make housing affordable to all groups.”

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