The real estate market in West Bengal is growing at a faster pace in both residential and commercial sectors, like many other states of India. Given the fact, the apartment registration in Kolkata was hiked to 5,410 units in August, informed the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs (UDMA) department minister, Firhad Hakim today.

Speaking during an event of the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) today, Mr Hakim claimed, “Like many other states of India, the real estate market in West Bengal is growing very fast in both residential and commercial sectors. In March 2014, residential apartment registration in Kolkata was increased by 17 per cent to 3,946 units registered. In August 2024, the apartment registration in Kolkata was hiked to 5,410.The growth was due to a rise in demand for affordable housing.

The mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation also rued the non-existence of a policy for mass housing in the state. “Unfortunately, we do not have a concrete policy of mass housing in West Bengal till now. But the file is there with the higher authorities and I hope that we do have the policy for affordable housing but the mass housing policy is yet to come,” he said.

The state UDMA minister also pointed out the issues related to it and reiterated, “The developer builds a large number of high street projects to meet the high demands of the rental spaces. There is a need in Kolkata. As the need increases day-by-day, we need to focus on some issues like time and cost overrun on construction projects. Environment issues also need to be considered during construction.”

Meanwhile, the mayor held a high-level meeting yesterday at KMC headquarters to discuss matters related to revenue collection. As the revenue collection by the civic body is said to be still running lower by Rs 1.25 crore as compared to last year’s corresponding period, Mr Hakim urged the officials to take steps to increase it. The mayor is also said to have asked the officials to hold camps in areas having unassessed properties and collect pending taxes to enhance revenue collection.