By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 5 Jul: In a press release, Brig KG Behl (Retd), President, All India Consumers Council and Sanyukta Nagrik Sangathan, Uttarakhand, has stated that the new relaxation in the construction of multi- storey buildings may create more problems than facilities. Amendments to the building bylaws allowing builders to raise the height of a building from 21 metres to 30 metres have been issued without considering that this area falls in the seismic zone IV – V and has become more prone to such calamities keeping in mind the latest observations made by the scientists. However, in the hill areas, the height will continue to be 12 metres. Moreover, the minimum width of the road required earlier was 40 feet, which has now been reduced to 30 feet. In the MDDA Master Plan of 2015, the width of roads for construction of multi-storey buildings was different to the width available on the ground, but the construction plans were approved by MDDA, which was contrary to the rules. The change is probably to cover up the approvals thus provided to builders and not so much concerned with the width as required. It may be added here that the width of the road needed for the construction of such buildings is as per the requirement of the fire fighting and other service departments that need space in the case of calamities to reach these places. It will be appreciated that, during such calamities, when the buildings fall, quite a large portion of the road gets covered and very little is available for the movement of service vehicles, whose size is bigger than normal. Not just the height of the building, but the density norm has also been relaxed. As per the new rule, up to 300 dwelling units would be allowed per acre, while earlier, it was 200 dwelling units per acre. As one of the committee members put it, “Dehradun has met saturation level in HIG flats. Now, the demand for MIG and LIG will escalate and, in order to accommodate more flats of that size, relaxation in density norms is being allowed. It will help those people who can’t afford very expensive houses but desire to stay in flats.” It may however be brought to the notice of the authorities that a larger number of people will be staying in those flats and will create greater demand for water, electricity, parking, garbage disposable and sewerage, etc. Parking is becoming more difficult by the day as the new buildings make provision of parking only for the residents and none for visitors. The visitors are made to park outside the building which blocks portions of the road and wherever the roads are narrow, it creates traffic jams. Another significant feature is that the floor area ratio (FAR), which was earlier 2.1 has now been increased to 3. The floor area ratio has now been made purchasable from MDDA. Those who are interested can purchase .9 FAR through development authority and that’s how MDDA is aiming at garnering funds. It may be added here that, instead of MDDA making money this way, it should be more concerned about the facilities as the above scheme may create more problems for the vehicles
