Govt to amend bylaws for independent floors

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, August 29

The Local Government Department has initiated an exercise to amend the building norms under the Punjab Municipal Building Bylaws, 2018, to regulate the construction of independent floors across the state.

Proposed EDC and CLU charges

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• S 2: Equal to charges levied for residential plotted development
• S 3: Equal to charges levied for residential plotted development plus 50% of difference of charges for group housing development
• S 4: Equal to charges levied for residential plotted development plus 70% of difference of charges for group housing development

Building plans of independent floors that were approved during the previous Congress-led government had come under the lens of the Vigilance Bureau.

A senior government functionary said a draft of the amendments has been sent to all civic bodies for their feedback. He added that the exercise is being carried out to remove anomalies and incorporate the provision of independent floors – stilted residential floors on plotted development under the Affordable Housing policy. As the steps involve financial implications, they would be sent to the Cabinet for approval, he said.

Key amendments will be made with respect to the minimum width of approach and internal roads, minimum plot area, minimum frontage, maximum ground coverage, maximum floor area ration (FAR) and setbacks around building.

It would be mandatory to have stilt parking and no structure other than star or lift would be permitted. Any fragmentation of a plot would not be allowed and all independent floor owners would jointly own the full plot and the builder or seller of independent floor would have to register as a builder promoter with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).

The RERA had in 2020 pulled up the Local Government Department for issuing partial completion and layout plans without approval to projects. Builders used the loopholes in rules to get plans sanctioned for a row of units by showing each row as a separate unit, though they were part of a larger project.