In four months, 419 developers in Maharashtra had also decided to opt for e-registration.

Since October last year, when the online facility for first-sale properties was launched to alleviate crowding at state sub-registrar offices, 419 developers have applied for e-registration of their projects from their offices.

The registration and town planning authorities approved 347 of the 419 applications, and nearly 300 documents were registered.

According to state registration department officials, the process has been streamlined for the benefit of developers registered with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA).

Suhas Mapari, Deputy Inspector General of Registrations (IT), told TOI that they were getting a positive response from the developers who had been trained in this area. “Of the 419 applications, 347 were approved after due process, while 291 were submitted to the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and nearly 120 projects are already operational,” he said.

According to registration officials, the developer could apply on the registration department’s website and then submit the necessary documents to the town planning department’s Joint District Registrar (JDR). After reviewing the project valuation, the JDR must clear it within two working days, after which the application is forwarded to the NIC for the template of the e-registration application.

With the state’s e-registration process picking up steam, the registration department has also reached out to banks, asking them to accept digitised property documents in the event of loan sanction. “At the moment, e-registration is completely voluntary.” Developers and buyers can choose to complete a transaction online. “However, if they prefer to continue offline, they can do so as well,” a registration official clarified.

Official told that they have reached out to developer institutions in designed to motivate more developers to engage in online process. “There were some hiccups with the applications firstly, but they have been ironed out and our members are registering for the process,” Sunil Furde, President of state Credai, replied. Leaving Mumbai, the organisation has 3,500 members.

Officials are working on RR rates.

State IGR officials announced on February 16 that the process of evaluating Ready Reckoner (RR) rates was underway after receiving suggestions and objections from all districts. While rate rationalisation in all areas is being discussed, developers have demanded that there be no increase in RR rates this year.