If the house of your dreams is spread across lesser than 2,400 square feet, then you can expect an exemption from seeking pre-approval for your building plan. The State Government has approved a proposal from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to exempt pre-approval for building plan (only for G+2 houses constructed in a land measuring less than 2,400 square feet).
Sources said that the BBMP will issue a notification on this soon. However, current commissioner BH Anil Kumar has said that they will have one more round of discussions before taking a final call.
As of now, those planning to build houses have to get a pre-plan approval from the BBMP. The plan that must be prepared by an architect has to be submitted to the BBMP’s zonal offices. Upon submission, officials from BBMP take up a site inspection and then provide the approval and the construction can begin only after that.
However, the current system has a lot of loopholes and there are allegations of huge bribery involved in the building plan approval process. Rajesh S, a techie, said, “I wanted to construct a house in a land measuring 1,200 square feet. However, it is not easy to get the plan sanctioned even if everything is legally okay. It is known that bribe plays a big role in building plan approval. The BBMP must fix that.”
As per the proposal, a plan created and approved by an architect should be uploaded on the BBMP website. The BBMP officials would review the plan online and give it a go-ahead. The house owner need not wait for the inspection and can begin construction. But, if any violation or deviation is found at a later stage, the BBMP will penalise the house owner. Recently, Mayor Goutham Kumar had said that the new move would help people for quick approval and also avoid having to run to BBMP offices.
Welcoming the move, M Jagadish, an architect said, “It’s a good decision. The new rule will benefit the common man. As of now, one must visit BBMP office several times to get their plan approved and meet a number of officials. It takes at least a fortnight to get the plan approved. The online system will be helpful to both the people and BBMP, as it will control misuse of the law by both parties.”
Commissioner Kumar, however, has said there will be a review before the plan gets a go-ahead. “We fear it could lead to more violations. So before we adopt it, we need to take a proper view at it and be cautious. We are already facing several violations,” he told.
