Curation Team
LUCKNOW: Motivated by the idea to create new revenue streams, urban local bodies will initiate a process to approve maps of buildings under their jurisdiction.
Presently, authority to approve map lies with housing development authorities within regulated areas. Localities falling beyond such regulated areas, which are maintained by municipal bodies, however, have no such mechanism.
As a result, on the outskirts and peripheral areas, buildings are designed randomly and due to unplanned construction activity, traffic bottlenecks and congestion occur once the area gets developed over time.
Officials added that encroachment on public space was extremely common, as property owners construct buildings over the land that needs to be reserved compulsorily as a setback of existing roads for future widening purposes.
“Moreover, extending balconies and terrace areas over streets is also extremely common. No regulatory authority monitors the construction work that takes place over the plots in under-developed or developing areas,” said an officer.
Though homework has begun, it could take up to two years to implement building bylaws across 762 urban local bodies. Principal secretary housing and urban development department, P Guruprasad, said, “Discussions are on to introduce some mechanism to regulate construction activity within municipal limits. But before that, a lot of work needs to be done as we have to create resources, manpower, and expertise to evolve a new mechanism from scratch.”
