To fix accountability and check potential fraud with investors, the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department has made it mandatory for promoters to furnish a bank guarantee equal to 35 per cent of the cost of the internal development of a project, while doing away with the option of mortgaging property.

Earlier, a promoter, while paying the cost of the internal development of a project, was allowed to mortgage plots at 90 per cent of the collector rate of the property concerned outside the municipal limits and at 75 per cent per cent of the collector rate of the property concerned inside the municipal limits.

“In many cases, the realtors were mortgaging chunks of land that were not in their name,” said a senior government functionary.

The fresh amendments to the provisions of the

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