The Bhubaneswar Development Authority has revised the rules for its Ekamra Residency housing project, reducing the refund period for unsuccessful applicants and replacing a fixed penalty interest rate with a market-linked formula after the scheme received a poor response.
Under the amended provisions, earnest money deposits will be refunded within 45 days of approval by the Property Allotment Committee, compared with the earlier timeline of 60 days. The Bhubaneswar Development Authority said the changes were required to bring the project’s provisions closer to the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.
The authority has also changed the interest applicable to delayed instalment payments. The earlier rules imposed a flat annual interest rate of 12%. The revised provision links the charge to the State Bank of India’s highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate, plus two percentage points. This makes the applicable rate dependent on the bank’s lending benchmark rather than a fixed figure.
A corrigendum issued by the BDA has removed references to ground rent from several clauses covering buyers’ post-allotment obligations. It has also revised the taxation clause. While the previous wording allowed the amount payable by buyers to rise if tax rates changed, the amended clause states that the amount will be recalculated according to the applicable tax revision.
The BDA has rewritten sections of the allotment agreement dealing with the sale of apartments, the rights of allottees and the obligations of the promoter. Another provision concerning rebates for advance payment of instalments has effectively been neutralised, with the discount rate fixed at zero.
The authority said the amendments do not alter the fundamentals of the housing project. “It has been issued after a review of the brochure provisions. These are corrective measures intended to ensure conformity with applicable laws,” a BDA official said, according to the Times of India report.
The changes are significant because they affect the financial terms and legal documentation governing applicants and purchasers in a public housing project. A shorter EMD refund period changes the timeline for applicants who are not allotted apartments, while the revised interest clause changes how delayed payments will be calculated.
Real estate expert Bimalendu Pradhan said the most important aspect of the corrigendum was the BDA’s explicit reliance on RERA provisions. He said the authority had earlier maintained that allotments were governed under the Odisha Development Authorities framework, while the revised document acknowledged the need to align the scheme with RERA requirements.
The amended rules now form the basis for the project’s applicant, allotment and buyer documentation. The BDA has not indicated any change to the project’s core structure in the information reported by the Times of India.
