Preparing for next hurdle

Residents of East Azad Nagar are preparing to face new challenges that the legal tag to their colony has brought with it even as they celebrate their place on planned Delhi’s map.

Residents of East Azad Nagar are preparing to face new challenges that the legal tag to their colony has brought with it even as they celebrate their place on planned Delhi’s map.

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People gave mixed reactions to the development that will allow them to carry out repairs, extensions to their property and sell and register it properly.

While many expressed their happiness, others complained about the fee that would have to be paid to the consultant for the layout plan.

RWA president Subhash Chand Kohli said only after they pay Rs. 1.7 lakh to the consultants that stakeholders will get to put their signatures on the layout plan, finalising the process of legalisation of the 50-year-old colony.

“We have agreed to pay but we have written to them asking for more information, as the charges are quite high for a middle-class residential colony. An architect would have charged merely Rs. 40,000 for the same job,” said Kohli.

Though property prices are expected to soar in the colony, 70-80% of house owners will not get their individual building plans sanctioned, RWA sources said.

“People who have their properties on the main road will get the approved plan. But the ones who have already constructed huge houses might not,” Kohli said. He said that many people will not pay a mandatory levy of Rs. 200 per sq. metre to the East Delhi municipal corporation as part of the process.

East Delhi municipal commissioner SS Yadav said the layout will be authenticated, only after the RWA pays consultancy charges to Jamia Millia Islamia.

“The plan will be authenticated and signed by chief town planner, additional commissioner and the municipal secretary along with the RWA and the consultants,” Yadav said.

The commissioner said the existing buildings can be regularised after finalisation of the layout and construction activity allowed.

As far as getting the building plan sanctioned is concerned, residents will have to apply individually to the corporation rather.“Residents will have to approach the building department with a proposed building plan prepared by an architect,” added Yadav. The layout plan — a copy of which is with HT — shows that the colony will need to have six-metre-wide roads. However, most of this space has been encroached upon by the people.