Even as the newly enacted the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act is a path-breaking and a game changer law; the players and builders need to be cautious as many operators had to pull down their shutters once the law was enforced in Dubai. This was stated by Ani Ray, Managing Director of Arabian Construction Company. “The Indian RERA (law) is based on Dubai and American models. Nothing wrong about it. But when RERA was first introduced in 2009, lot of companies had to put down their shutters. Because they could not cope with the demand of the law itself,” Mr Ray told UNI in an interview here. He said, “It would be more than 100 those were closed. Lot of companies had to close down because they were not equipped. Importantly, that fear is in India also....People who are organised and cash-rich will survive.” But he said RERA was a “long awaited” reform and the good part of the law is that henceforth the fly-by-night operators cannot survive. “Drawing money from one head and putting that money into another area for investment would not go for long. In Delhi, as you say, ‘Iska topi uska sar’ such a thing will not work. This is a long awaited reform....and poor man will get the benefit because for most of the buyers ... buying a house for an average Indian means investing hard earned money”. In this context, he said now because of RERA people will be much more relieved... “now they have an authority whom they can complain. Only thing I need to stress is here that it has to be ratified by states without much dilution”. Mr Ray, whose company is constructing 117-storey building ‘World I’ in Mumbai, said the Maharashtra government has already introduced RERA and other states are in the process of introduction. Till now, he said, in the real estate sector in India there was no structure......“This will definitely professionalise everybody without any choice”. “It is good for the builders, the contractors and authorities and the beneficiaries are the common people and the end user or the buyers,” he said. Answering questions, Mr Ray said as an Indian he is keen to push his company deeper and efforts are on to spread the foot print into various states and also want to enter government sector. However, he said, there are a lot of basic differences in working style and approaches especially in the construction sector between Gulf and in India. That is why most works in the country take at least more than one and half times more time than one requires in Dubai. “There are lot of obstacles in India. Things are not frozen even planning and clearance come in phases. Generally Indians like to work in that manner. But in Gulf they follow the British pattern, there is a fixed process,” he said. More UNI DEVN SB1001