The Hindu 29.11.2010
Drastic fall in building plan applications
| Officials attribute it to GO 450 |
VIJAYAWADA: GO 450 issued by the State government in October has apparently made a dent into the number of building plans submitted for approval to the town planning wing of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).
Officials admit that there is a drastic fall in the number of applications ever since the Government issued the GO that mandates the applicants to mortgage 10 per cent of built-up area for the building proposed on a plot area of 100 sq metres. Till now, the Andhra Pradesh Revised Building Rules in the State had a set of conditions that included exemption from mortgage clause to plots of size up to 300 sq. metres and a height of 6 metres.
The town planning wing has so far hardly received 20 to 25 plans for buildings proposed in plots of area up to 100 sq. metres. Most of the individual residential houses in the city are built in plots of less than 100 sq. metres. However, the exact number of buildings constructed in plots of size up to 100 sq. metres is not available.
Revised rules
As the Revised Building Rules (RBR) issued in 2007 considered only two categories of plots – of a size of up to 300 sq. metres and those of a size of above 300 sq. metres – the data pertaining to buildings in plots of up to 100 sq. metres is not available. The town planning wing has been dividing the plans in the categories of plots of up to 300 sq. metres and plots of a size between 200 sq. metre and 300 sq. metres so far, sources say.
The town planning wing receives, on an average, 1,200 applications per annum. Of this, about 50 per cent applications are related to plans proposed in plots of less than 300 sq. metres size. The VMC received 106 building plans for plots of more than 300 sq. metres in 2008, while it was 101 in 2009 and 155 this year till date. Likewise, the number of plans received for plots of a size between 200 sq. metres and 300 sq. metres was 136 in 2008; 249 in 2009 and 245 this year till date, sources say. The Corporation, in all, received 1,430 applications in the current calendar year, while it was 1,594 and 1,147 in 2009 and 2008, respectively. Of these, the town planning cleared 1,106, 1,460, and 1,284 within a week of submission of applications.
‘Rude shock'
CPI(M) leader Ch. Babu Rao describes the GO as a rude shock to the middle class people planning to construct houses. The owners would have to forego the mortgaged portion even if there is any small violation or deviation from the building plan sanctioned, he says.
