KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation is set to revise its building rules to ensure that builders do not get to regularise unauthorised construction if the violation is more than 10% of the area allowed to be built.
Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said the civic brass had taken a tough stance on giving legal status to illegally constructed buildings. “We may consider regularization of buildings if the promoter does not engage in a major violation. Time and again, a section of promoters take advantage of our building rules and go for major change from the sanctioned plan and then try to get it regularised. We can’t allow this anymore,” said Hakim.
A KMC buildings department senior official said they were struggling to demolish several newly constructed buildings across the city where an entire floor has been constructed without sanction.
“Our team of officials in the borough level has identified several buildings which have been constructed by grossly violating building rules. Once we serve notices, the promoters queue up for regularization. But we are helpless as we need to abide by the building rules,” said the civic official.
According to a source in the KMC buildings department, the civic body had kept completion certificates on hold for hundreds of newly built buildings for violation of building rules after the Garden Reach tragedy. A CC is needed to apply for water and drainage lines.
Talking at length on the civic body’s determination to pull down illegal buildings, the mayor said the civic officials were always on the move to locate illegal buildings within their areas. However, Hakim said cops needed to play a more proactive role in weeding out a racket active in construction of unauthorized buildings.
“If the local police stations don’t act fast even after lodging an FIR against illegal constructions, our officials will move to Lalbazar and seek police assistance for demolition of unauthorized buildings in future,” said Hakim,
Hakim has also asked the KMC buildings department to offer relief to the owners of small land by relaxing building rules so that they can build homes without taking the illegal route of constructing a building without a sanctioned plan. The relaxations will be given to those who possess plots of 500 sq ft to 2,200 sq ft.
Relaxations will also be given to thika land plots. Hakim asked officials to launch a ward-wise campaign to make the citizens aware of the change in building rules. An official said, “Citizens, who are afraid of adhering to rules and don’t want to part with their land due to its small size, land in trouble as these buildings are constructed in absence of a structural engineer’s watch. There is a possibility that promoters may take advantage of this by using inferior materials.”
