CHANDIGARH: The city's skyline is set to change as the administration plans to relax height restrictions in southern sectors to allow structures with ground floor plus five storeys in future for 'space optimization.' This would be a major deviation from the present height restriction of ground floor plus three storeys.

Sources said the urban planning department has decided to allow upcoming structures, especially housing schemes, to go higher in the third-phase sectors of the city from Sector 47 to 63. A provision will also be made in the master plan of the city, which is expected to be ready shortly.

The existing housing apartments in the southern sectors have a maximum of three storeys, with some having stints for parking instead of the ground floor. But given the craze for owning a dwelling unit in Chandigarh, the decision would bring some relief as more families could be accommodated.

"While even in adjoining Mohali and Panchkula, there is not much appreciation in prices of flats and prospective buyers prefer plots, there is a mad scramble even for owning a two BHK (bedroom hall kitchen) flat in Chandigarh. Prices double in a few years," said Kamaljeet Singh Anand, property dealer based in Sector 49.

However, the relaxation in height restrictions is unlikely to be extended to the existing structures."There has neither been any request from any quarter nor has the structural stability of the existing flats been studied to consider such a move," said a UT official.

The upcoming housing project of Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) in Sector 63 is likely to be the first residential structure in the city to have five storeys. "It was due to a land dispute between Chandigarh and Punjab that the urban planning department allowed increase in height of the flats, which were originally planned to be five storeyed," said a CHB official.