The Hindu                05.06.2013

Yet another building sealed in city

Two additional floors built without Corporation approval.

There appears to be no let-up in the crackdown on illegal and unauthorised constructions in the city as the Madurai Corporation sealed a building on Raja Mill Road on Tuesday.

M.Rakkappan, Chief Town Planning Officer (CTPO), said the building with survey numbers 1214/1 and 1214/2 on Rajah Mill Road in Zone-4 (near Mangayarkarasi School, Maninagaram) was being built in gross violation of the specified built-up area and the number of floors.

“Building owners V.Balamurugan and V.Maheswaran got the plan approval for constructing the basement, ground floor and the first floor with a total area of 2,981 square feet. But they constructed 6,480 sq ft. Another serious violation was that they had constructed two additional floors without the Corporation’s approval,” he said. Mr.Rakkappan pointed out that the height of the building was 12 metres which was in stark violation of the rules. The height of the buildings should not exceed nine metres within one kilometre radius of Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.

Yet another violation noticed by the inspection team was that the basement of the building, which was meant for parking, had been converted into a godown for commercial purposes without the permission of the Town Planning Wing.

“We will continue inspecting illegal constructions in the city. In the last two months, more than 10 buildings were sealed and the public can pass on information to the Corporation if they notice unauthorised buildings,” the official added.