Shaveta Dua

In a bid to decongest traffic in the country, the government has decided to increase the length of national highways from 96,000 km to 2 lakh km, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said. The minister added that as much as 40 per cent of the traffic moved on these 2 per cent national highways which leads to five lakh accidents every year.

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In a landmark judgment, a court in Delhi held that developers cannot demand hidden charges which are not part of their contract with buyers and held them liable to pay compensation for delay in the delivery of property. The court said the developers were “not holy cows” who cannot be questioned by their customers. Holding that developers cannot levy any additional charges without any justification, the court said they were adopting tactics to extort money from the buyers. Read more

One of the largest commercial real estate developers in the country, RMZ Corporation is in talks with sovereign and pension funds to raise 500 million dollars for its expansion plans. Company’s managing director Arshdeep Sethi said: “The money will be used to buy office assets across major markets in India.”

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In an effort to boost the growth of infrastructure companies, the government is looking to allow them to file a consolidated group tax return. Under the new provision the Infrastructure companies would be able to consolidate profits and losses in all their subsidiaries and pay taxes as a single entity. Currently, these firms treat each project as a separate entity and the performance of one such operation is independent from another.

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Hotel development and investment firm SAMHI Hotels has acquired Hyatt Regency in Pune from Jatia Group-owned Ascent Hotels for Rs 350 crore. The acquisition will be funded through a mix of debt and equity. Opened in 2012, this five-star property has more than 200 rooms and 102 fully serviced luxury apartments. It will be SAMHI’s third property in Pune, after two Formule 1 branded hotels.