The Hindu        17.08.2017 

Corpn to collect data on high-rises

The
Corporation is set for a detailed data collection exercise on high-rise
buildings in the city that have more than four storeys.

The local
body has in recent years been receiving several complaints regarding
flats constructed in violation of the original building permit that it
had granted.

These complaints have mostly come from customers
struggling to get TC numbers and other public utility connections due to
the violations committed by the real estate companies.

The
decision regarding data collection was taken at a steering committee
meeting held earlier this week. According to officials here, the data
will enable the Corporation to crack down more effectively on
violations.

“We have been constantly receiving complaints from
several customers who had bought individual units in various flats in
the city. The real estate companies usually get building permit citing
certain number of floors and a certain parking area, but later carry out
the construction violating these conditions. In such cases, TC numbers
cannot be provided. But, the issue here is that, it is the customers who
suffer, rather than the real estate company, as they would have got all
the money in advance,” Mayor V.K. Prashanth said.

Lack of monitoring

The
lack of a system to constantly monitor whether the building permit
conditions were being followed in construction and at later stages also
needs to be addressed, he said.

According to Town Planning
Committee Standing Committee Chairman R. Satheesh Kumar, the Corporation
is insisting on flats having facilities for waste management and
rainwater harvesting and safety measures including proper setback,
before providing occupancy certificates.

“In case of such
violations, we are unable to provide TC number, because of which we
cannot do building tax assessment also. One way is to regularise them
with an ‘Unauthorised’ TC number, with a tax three times a high as the
normal rates. We will look into all the violations during the data
collection and take the necessary action after that. Though we have
records of all building permits issued from here, we do not have
separate data on high-rises. The data collection will be done on a zonal
basis,” he said.