Haryana Town Planning Department halts S+4 floor approvals

With the Punjab and Haryana High Court hearing challenges to the Haryana Government's stilt-plus-four (S 4) floor policy, the state's Town and Country Planning Department has put the implementation of the policy on hold until further orders.

In a memorandum dated July 21, the department directed the Chief Administrator of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), the Managing Director of Haryana State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation (HSIIDC), and the Director, Urban Local Bodies, to suspend all further approvals relating to S 4 floor residential buildings.

The memorandum stated that all further approvals in respect of S 4 floors on residential plots have been put on hold "on account of various works/modalities pertaining to online approval of building plans/self-certification currently under finalisation, as well as administrative exigencies."

The order was issued by Senior Town Planner Vijender Singh on behalf of the Director, Town and Country Planning Department. It specifies that the suspension of approvals will remain in force until further orders.

Copies of the memorandum have also been forwarded to all Senior Town Planners in circle offices and District Town Planners in field offices.

The department has further directed that no layout plans, zoning plans or service plan estimates involving a density of 18 persons per plot or construction under the S 4 floor policy should be approved until further orders.

The department's Information Technology wing has also been instructed to immediately disable the submission of applications seeking approval for S 4 floor buildings on both the dedicated S 4 portal and the Haryana Online Building Plan Approval System.