Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will issue a special circular to notify a revision in building rules for construction of homes of less than 200 sqm on 3 cottah plots in the city. The amendment to the KMC Building Rules 2009 will thereafter be passed in the House in January.
A day after announcing radical changes in rules to allow speedier construction of individual houses on small plots in the city, primarily in added areas off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, Garia, Jadavpur, Behala and Garden Reach, mayor Firhad Hakim said the necessary notification and amendment will be made at the earliest to ensure the new rules came into force in January.
“The announcement was made to simplify the process of constructing one’s own house. I have had several complaints from plot owners who have had to wait for months and at times more than a year to get a simple building plan on a 2.5-3 cottah plot approved. People are unnecessarily harassed and made to run from pillar to post. To remove the red tape, we have done away with the requirement to get a building plan sanctioned for construction of house of less than 200 sqm on 3 cottah,” Hakim said.
Sources in the KMC building department said the circular on the new rules is likely to be issued wihtin the next 10 days and the amendment to the building rules will happen at the next House meeting in January.
According to officials, assistant engineers in each borough have been asked to clear applications for construction of homes that meet the 200 sqm/3cottah criteria within three working days. If any delay is noticed, the official will be showcaused. “We will ensure that from January itself, all applications, including the pending ones, are cleared the same month,” the mayor said.
With no building plans involved, the assistant engineer has to check the land ownership record before giving a nod to the licensed building surveyor (LBS) who will apply for construction of the house on behalf of the land owner. “It is the LBS who will give an undertaking on the legitimacy of the ownership and confirmation to KMC building rules during construction. If there is a problem in ownership of land or violation in construction, the LBS will be held responsible and can lose the license,” a building department official said.
According to him, an inspection will be carried out after the construction of the plinth to determine if the building confirms to the floor area ratio (FAR) it is entitled to. Most of the buildings are expected to be either of two stories with some extending to three.
At present, a plot owner has to submit the plan of the proposed house to the borough assistant engineer through the local licensed building surveyor (LBS). The plan is often held up for months with the assistant engineer pointing to objections raised by the executive engineer who then points to the building department at the KMC headquarters. KMC building department officials said delays bred corruption.