The Hindu 27.12.2009
“Empower LPA to approve plans”
MADURAI: Builders’ Association of India has urged the Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, to empower Local Planning Authority to approve building plans without ceiling on area and number of dwelling units.
In a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister and Union Urban Development Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, its past president, V. Ramachandran, said the LPA was presently allowed to approve plans for a maximum of 12 dwelling units with a floor area not exceeding 15,000 square feet. Stating that builders and promoters were venturing in bigger projects with more number of housing units, since smaller projects were not commercially viable with the rising cost of building materials and labour cost.
The memorandum wanted the Commissioner of Town and Country planning to notify the areas that were suitable for mutli-storey buildings in all municipal and corporation and also inform the local bodies.
The association wanted to fix a time frame for the municipalities and corporations to reply to the local planning authority on the applications seeking building plan approvals. The plan documents should be allowed to be forwarded to the Directorate of Town and Country Planning in case no reply is received within the fixed time-frame, the memorandum said. The files should be cleared by the DTCP also within a time-limit.
The LPA should raise all the queries with regard to any application seeking plan approval at one go and not one after another to prevent inordinate delay.
