E-Paper
Stilt plus 4 floors: Town and country planning dept asks house owners to restore unauthorised constructions
A public notice issued by the town and country planning department earlier this month said that the house owners are advised to restore all such unauthorised construction to its original position and ensure that no sale or purchase of units on the fourth floor is undertaken by them
The Haryana government will initiate legal action if occupation certificates are issued for the stilt plus 4 floor constructions without building plans being sanctioned before February 23, 2023.
The state government imposed a ban on approval and construction of stilt plus 4 floors on residential plots on February 23, 2023. However, occupation certificates were issued by some architects where the building plan for the fourth floor was not sanctioned before the imposition of the February 23, 2023 ban, officials said.
A public notice issued by the town and country planning department earlier this month said that the house owners are advised to restore all such unauthorised construction to its original position and ensure that no sale or purchase of units on the fourth floor is undertaken by them.
An expert committee, constituted by the state government, to comprehensively examine the contentious issue of construction of stilt plus 4 floors in urban areas, had in 2023, recommended that permission for stilt plus 4 floors shall only be granted if the availability of commensurate infrastructure is certified to the satisfaction of authorities and the required infrastructure augmentation is initiated by the concerned department. The recommendations of the committee are yet to be implemented by the state government.
A May 3 communication from the director of town and country planning said that the practice of granting an occupation certificate for the fourth floor without the approval of the building plan prior to the February 23,2023, ban orders is observed to be against the spirit of the ban imposed by the state government.
“Immediate action should be taken to ensure restoration of such constructions to their original position,’’ it said. The directions also included blacklisting of all such architects for having taken action in violation of state government orders. “The Council of Architecture to be requested for taking penal action against all such architects under intimation to the department,” said the communication.
“Accordingly, it is hereby brought to the notice of the general public as well as all the practising architects that no occupation certificate should be issued for such a building where the building plan has not been approved for the fourth floor. It shall be ensured that all the occupation certificates are in accordance with the guidelines issued by the department on February 23, 2023, and other applicable norms of Haryana Building Code-2017,’’ the public notice said. Any breach in implementation of the government orders would invite immediate revocation, cancellation of occupation certificate and disciplinary action against the defaulting owner, architect and stakeholders, the notice said.
What expert committee recommended for stilt plus four floors
Meanwhile, the expert committee had recommended that the availability of physical and social infrastructure commensurate with the density of population in an urban area will be key to grant permission to build a stilt plus four floors in urban areas of Haryana.
The committee had said that an infrastructure capacity audit for identified areas will take into account the existing availability of water supply, sewerage, drainage, electricity, parking and fire-safety and estimated population levels to which the existing infrastructure can cater. It will also examine the potential to augment infrastructure to cater to the increased population density to be generated if stilt plus four floors were permitted and specific components to be upgraded, along with estimated budgetary requirements and tentative timelines, for infrastructure enhancement.
The committee has recommended that construction of stilt plus four floors on residential plots of existing urban areas may only be permitted where sectors, colonies or areas are bounded by 12 metre (about 40 feet) or above wide roads. This means that all plots should abut 12 metre and above wide roads. Urban areas, including Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) sectors, housing board colonies and licensed areas, which came up prior to the late 90s do not have 12-metre roads.
The committee had also proposed a revision in the Haryana Building Code, 2017, to address ground coverage, floor area ratio (FAR), setbacks and structural safety issues. During consultations with stakeholders, it emerged that increased ground coverage and reduced setbacks led to a negative impact on the structure of adjacent buildings due to the sharing of common walls and quality of life due to reduced natural light, ventilation and green areas.
“Thus, the construction of stilt plus four floors on residential plots may be allowed subject to the condition that an independent structure be designed for such construction, no load should get transferred upon the common wall of the adjoining already built structure, basements be constructed after maintaining 2.4-m distance from the boundary wall of the adjacent plot. The permissible building height may be reduced to 15 m from 16.5 m and setbacks may be provisioned for all the plot sizes in such a manner that it does not obstruct natural light, ventilation, air movement and privacy in the rear setback is maintained,’’ the committee said.
.
