Noida: People using residential properties for commercial activities to face heavy penalty

NOIDA: The Noida authority has decided to impose a heavy penalty if commercial activities are operated from residential premises.

NOIDA: The Noida authority has decided to impose a heavy penalty if commercial activities are operated from residential premises.

HT Image

The penalty will be 1% of total cost of the property, said officials. This means that if the value of a property is Rs1 crore as per prevailing circle rate, then the property owner will have to pay Rs1 lakh as penalty. The penalty will only be acceptable with the rider that the concerned project engineer submits their report that the property owner has shut down the commercial activity. In addition, the defaulting property owner will have to submit an affidavit stating that he or she will not restart the commercial activity.

The authority has also decided to cancel the allotment of a property if the owner is found violating the land usage, even after submitting an affidavit stating that no commercial activity will be restarted.

The authority started the move following residents’ complaints of unauthorised activities running from residential premises.

Officials said the move will benefit the city.

“The Noida authority will act as per law against commercial activities in residential premises. These not only create civic mess but also affect the objectives of planned development adversely,” said Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer of the Noida authority.

The Uttar Pradesh government had on April 17, 1976 established Noida a well-planned city where residential, commercial, institutional and mixed-land use, among plots of other usage, were allotted to property owners. As per rules, if an owner of a residential plot or flat is found running an office or a commercial activity from the property then it is in violation of building bylaws. Commercial plots are allotted for commercial activities keeping in mind the requirement of parking, waste disposal and other requirements.

“If the property owner starts commercial activities in a property meant for residential usage then it leads to parking mess, violation of building bylaws and other civic issues in a locality. Therefore, the authority has brought in a policy to act tough against all kinds of properties, which are doing activities not permitted on that land,” said a Noida authority official, not authorised to speak to the media.

Residents’ groups also supported the authority’s move, saying that unauthorised activities near people’s homes are a nuisance which give rise to unauthorised parking and traffic in small lanes.

“The authority must act promptly and tough against whosoever is found using residential premises for activities which are not permitted there, because commercial activities trouble all those living near such a premise,” said PS Jain, president of confederation of National Capital Region residents’ welfare associations (CONRWA), a residents’ group.