The Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA) has identified 919 unauthorised layouts in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts. However, only 588 of these layout owners have come forward to regularise their layouts under the layout regularisation scheme (LRS).
Most of these unauthorised layouts have sprung up in Vizianagaram district. Sources say that some people are still waiting for the government to further extend the deadline of LRS, which originally closed in December last year.
VMRDA officials are now forwarding the details of these unauthorised layouts to the registration department to prevent registrations, apart from initiating action on their own.
Vizianagaram has emerged as a popular housing destination in recent years for various reasons including the proposed Bhogapuram airport, affordable and lucrative prices, and growth happening in the bordering areas of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts.
Several real estate developers have converted agricultural land into layouts without obtaining permission from the development authority. The middle-classes are lured by low prices where a 100 square yard land parcel sells for as low as Rs 5 lakh in rural parts of Vizianagaram district.
While the development of plots in approved layouts is limited to around 60 cents of an acre, the unauthorised layout developers sell more than 80 cents of land as they do not conform with stipulated guidelines or zoning regulations.
The majority of these layouts would not have no proper roads, open spaces, electricity lines or provision of other utilities. Moreover, some buyers may lose their plots, if the layout owner or the buyers on their own go for regularisation as they have to adhere to all infrastructural and spacing norms. At the end of the day, buyers may have to cough up the LRS charges too.
A VMRDA urban planning official informed that the development authority has initiated action against the unauthorised layouts.
“We have issued notices to these developers, asking them why we should not demolish the structures or the layouts. As the LRS deadline is already over, we cannot take any fresh applications for regularisation,” said the official. In all, VMRDA received 6,206 applications under the LRS scheme, including from the individual plot owners and old applications.
