Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities of India. The reasons for such a fast growth could be
attributable mainly to the development of I.T. hub, pleasant climatic
conditions and better educational and employment opportunities. Because of high
influx of people to the city, there is a great demand for house and house sites
in Bangalore. This, in turn, has lead to
the steep rise in the property values here.
Building by laws are introduced to regulate construction activities,
to prevent construction of buildings in a haphazard manner and to provide
better civic amenities. Zoning regulations are also introduced with the same
motive and to regulate the land use, control of density of population and to
develop the city in an orderly way. However, these building by-laws and zonal
regulations are not strictly followed by the people presumably on the ground
that the restrictions imposed are nothing but hindrance in exploitation of the
property to the full extent and thereby they construct their buildings at their
will. In so doing, they do not mind to
forego certain prescribed civic amenities such as having broader roads,
playgrounds, parks and other civic amenities.
Broadly, we may classify the violations into three categories
viz., violation of Floor Area ratio, violation of site set back and violation
of plot coverage. Violation of any one of these three violations would deprive
the land owner of completion certificate.
Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R) is prescribed separately for
intensely developed area, moderately developed area and sparsely developed
area. Earlier, F.A.R. used to be high in more intensely developed central areas
in view of land values and lower F.A.R. in the suburbs where land values are
less. But presently it is on the reverse pattern and the policy is to fix less
F.A.R. in the central area to enable decongestion and higher F.A.R in the
suburbs to encourage development where the traffic and other problems are less.
The building by-laws prescribe for certain set backs on sides of the building to facilitate the
people to have proper light, ventilation, privacy and to save them from dust
and traffic noise. While framing the building by-laws, the civic authorities
also keep in mind the future land requirements for broadening roads. It is noticed that people violate building
by-laws by way of additional floor construction, site set back construction,
and providing stair case on the site set back area, balcony area to be
converted into living rooms.
The Zonal Regulations of the Comprehensive Development Plan
of Bangalore prescribe different land uses like; residential, commercial, land
for civic amenities etc., for systematic development of the locality. But, it
is noticed that the residential buildings situated along the main roads and the
roads nearer to commercial area are developed and utilized as commercial
property. Even several industries also do crop up in these localities in gross
violation of zonal regulations. Similarly, residential or commercial buildings
do crop up in civic amenities sites meant for parks, play grounds, schools,
green belt areas etc.
If a part of the building is constructed with deviations, the
owners of such property hesitate to approach the plan sanctioning authorities
whenever they intend to put up further construction on the property for
approval of sanction plans for the reason that deviations will be noticed during
inspection by these authorities and thereby proceed to make further
construction without the sanction plan. Such people try to develop rapport with
the concerned municipal authorities and put up additional constructions without
sanction plan.
The reason for violation of building by-laws and sanction
plans by the people is that most of the land owners/builders want to exploit
their land to an optimum extent because the residential and commercial
properties do fetch high return.
Presently, in Bangalore there is a steep rise in land value, say Rs.5,
000/- per Sq.ft. on an average.
In a large number of cases, deviations and violations take
place with the active support of the officials and the local politicians. Only
in rare cases when it is brought to the notice of the competent authority of
deviations, action would be initiated by the concerned authorities against
which action the land owners knock the doors of the courts and in many such cases courts do grant stay. Thereupon, the building owners do enjoy the
property for long period despite violation of the by-laws since it would take
long time for the court to dispose of the matter.
Violation of by-laws, deviations of sanction plan, zonal
regulations etc., cannot be allowed to be continued for long since it is an
unhealthy trend. Therefore, the following suggestions may help in curbing
violations of the by-laws etc.
The building bylaws and zonal regulations of the
Comprehensive Development Plan should be user friendly and acceptable to the
majority of the public. Further, the bylaws should not consist of too many
technical jargons but should be simple to enable the common man to understand
and follow. Bylaws should be suitable to the local conditions failing which there
would be violation of such laws.
When once user friendly building bylaws with simplified
procedure for sanction of building plans are introduced, there should be
deterrent punishment if the property owners deliberately deviate from the
sanctioned plan or construct their buildings without the sanction of the
competent authority. It may be kept in
mind that unless strict enforcement of the zonal regulations and building
by-laws is carried out in letter and spirit, there is likelihood of people
violating even the user friendly bylaws.
Construction of a building generally takes not less than a
year. During this time, frequent visit
by the concerned area engineer and supervisor to find out whether the
construction is according to sanction plan etc., would prevent violations of
the regulations by the land owners.
Instead of this, the municipal authorities conduct raids after several
years of such construction putting the people to a great hardship and
embarrassment. To avoid such a
situation, strict enforcement of visit by the concerned engineer must be
introduced and if any deviations are noticed later on, the concerned engineer
should be made accountable for allowing such deviations and action initiated
against him for dereliction of his official duty.
As a onetime relief, for the existing buildings all
deviations in building by-laws, plans and zonal regulations could be permitted
with different slabs of penalty for such violations; The higher the violation,
more the penalty. Once user friendly by-laws are introduced, there should be no
leniency whatsoever and every deviation should be punished with severe
penalty.
The building by laws need revision whenever there is change in
the C.D.P. of the city. The committee constituted to prepare the by laws should
comprise of not only the experts in the field but also the different sections
of the public so that the matter could get debated from different angles before
arriving at a conclusion. Thereupon, the
draft by laws should be circulated amongst the public to solicit the views and
suggestions from people of different walks of life. The print and visual media
can play a greater role in this regard. A team of technical officials
consisting of town planners, architects, and civil engineers can be formed to
educate the people on the need for adherence of the by laws while at the same
enlightening the public of the punishment for violations. Similarly, area committees consisting of
revered citizens and the representative of the resident’s welfare associations
may be constituted to monitor violations.
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