KOLKATA: Gift a portion of your land to the civic body and get additional floor area ratio (FAR) in return when applying for construction of a new building on the remaining plot. The land owner will be eligible for more liberal construction vertically to utilize the additional FAR.
The KMC buildings department proposes to offer extra FAR to those who will donate land to make the adjacent road wider. Once the road gets wider, the civic body’s building wings will allow extra FAR and do away with restrictions on the structure’s height. According to a civic official, the relaxations are being offered to donors of the land to ensure large vehicles, such as fire engines, can reach the neighbourhoods without hassles.
The proposal has been sent to the state govt and the civic body awaits a nod from before implementing the new buildings policy. An official said if approved, the new building rules would benefit people who owned small chunks of land.
The KMC buildings department has made several amendments to the existing rules with an aim to providing relief to citizens who want to construct a house on a plot, where the width of the adjacent road, is a handicap to allow landowners sufficient built-up space or the height of the building gets restricted.
According to a KMC buildings official, if the width of a road is less than 3.5m, a land owner or a builder will be allowed to construct a four-storey structure. But if the landowner agreed to gift a portion of his/her plot to the civic body and it helped the adjacent road get wider, the owner would be entitled to get not only extra FAR but the restriction of the height would also be abolished, said a KMC buildings department official.
“If the width of a road adjacent to a plot is 1.2m, we allow the plot owner to construct a G+1 building. If the road width is 2.4m, the plot owner gets a right to construct a G+2 building. If the road width is 3m or more but less than 3.5m, we allow to construct a G+3 building. Now, if a plot owner donates a portion of his/her land and the road becomes wider, he/she will be entitled to get extra FAR and more height,” said a KMC official.
A division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya issued the directive on Friday while hearing a petition complaining that the “illegal constructions” were made on thika tenancy land.
