Now, onus of ensuring regulated construction in Shimla on govt

Tribune News Service

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, January 11

The state government faces the onerous task of ensuring regulated construction after the Supreme Court today allowed the implementation of the Shimla Development Plan (SDP) 2041. The apex court order paved the way for the resumption of construction in 17 green belts and the core area.

Shimla Development Plan 2041 at a glance

• Area of operation: 22,450 hectares
• Population (2011 Census): 2,41,429
• Projected population for the year 2041: 6,25,127
• Four satellite townships at Ghandal, Naldehra, Fagu and Chamiyana
• Green belts: 17 (414 hectares)

What does the Supreme Court order mean

• Green Belts: In 17 green belts, only one-storey buildings with an attic will be permissible. In case of plots along roads, one parking floor will be allowed
• No tree will be permitted to be felled. As per the SDP, reconstruction will be allowed only on old pattern
• No new construction or increase in the constructed area is permissible in the green belts
• No construction will be permitted on forestland without clearance from the Central Government, as per the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act
• Core Area: In the core area, only two-storey buildings with attics will be permitted. An additional parking floor will be permitted in plots on motorable roads
• Shimla Planning Area: In the remaining Shimla Planning Area, three storeys with attics will be permitted. An additional parking floor will be allowed in plots on motorable roads

The lifting of the blanket ban on construction in 17 green belts from December 2000 and in the core area since the 2017 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) could open floodgates for unregulated building activity unless and until the government puts in place a strict monitoring mechanism.

The Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department and the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) face a tough challenge of checking haphazard construction, especially in the core area of the city. Also, devastation caused by the monsoon last year necessitated ensuring structural stability of buildings, which were on gentle gradient slopes and not in sinking or sliding zones.

The Supreme Court in its order clearly spelt out that while ensuring developmental activities so as to meet the demands of a growing population, it was necessary that ecological and environmental protection issues were also addressed. The court maintained that though the SDP was prepared after an exhaustive process in consultation with experts, if any citizen had a grievance that any provision was detrimental to the environment or the ecology, it was always open to raising a challenge to such an independent provision before an appropriate forum.

The Supreme Court quashed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) of of November 16, 2017, which continued the ban on construction in 17 green belts, imposed a blanket ban on construction in the congested core area and restricted construction to two and a half floors in the entire Shimla Planning Area (SPA). Now construction could be undertaken in both green belts and core area.

The Shimla Development Plan (SDP) elaborately considers how vertical construction will be preferred over horizontal construction so that the land to be utilised for actual construction will be lesser and there will be more open spaces.

The previous BJP government had finalised the draft development plan for 22,450 hectares of the Shimla Planning Area (SPA) on April 16, 2022, but the NGT stayed it on May 12, 2022. The Town and Country Planning Department had notified the final development plan on June 20, 2023.

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