UT allows lifts in CHB flats

Providing relief to thousands of residents, the UT Estate Department has allowed the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) to install lifts in its residential flats.

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According to a letter written to the CHB Chief Executive Officer by the Estate Department, allottees are allowed to construct lifts in the flats constructed by the CHB, as per the design approved manually (till the time requisite changes in Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS) are put in place) through an empanelled private architect.

It will be necessary to obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Chandigarh Housing Board before the presentation of the drawings of the lift. For this, the allottees will have to submit the plan. This order will be applicable only to flats and housing units built by the CHB. The Administration has also made it clear that this permission will not become a precedent, that is, this decision will not be taken as an example in other cases in the future.

For issuance of NOC, a 15-day notice will be issued to the rest of the allottees of the block for contributing proportionate cost, in case they intent to use the lift.

The move has come as a relief to the allottees who live on upper floors and are facing hardship due to no provision for lifts. This decision will especially benefit the elderly, pregnant women and differently abled persons.

In another big decision, the department has also given a relief to the people living in those buildings which are old and there is no space to install lifts. In such cases, the department has now given permission to install lifts with certain conditions. The order states that if it is not possible to construct a lift inside a building due to the design or location of the building, then in such a situation, the lift may be allowed to be constructed at a suitable place in its vicinity. But this permission will be subject to the condition that the ownership of the government's land will not change for construction at that place, which means a lift can be built on government land, but that land will not be transferred in the name of the allottee.