Builders breathe a sigh of relief, as construction set to get easier

Constructing a house is likely to get easier with the urban development ministry Friday releasing bylaws to provide instant building plan clearances and checking red-tape.

The model building bylaws (MBBL), to kick in within a fortnight, will bring relief to people in unauthorised neighbourhoods that have been regularised and rehabilitation colonies built after Partition.

The plot sizes here are usually small.

The bylaws simplify the sanction process for construction on small residential plots measuring up to 105 square metre (sqm).

Submission of a building plan prepared by an architect to the local body concerned along with other papers will mean the project has been sanctioned.

The laws grant civic agencies the power to give green clearances for individual projects of 5,000 sqm to 1,50,000 sqm so that one wouldn’t need to go to the Centre.

One may also adopt standard plans for residential plots up to 105 sqm. “The owner shall be entitled to sign standard plan and the required documents for sanction…Certificate from professionals would not be necessary and the owner shall be bound to follow the approved plan,” the bylaws said.

Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the land-owning agency Delhi Development Authority will notify the laws, but the three municipal corporations will enforce them.

Civic agencies long demanded simplification of building-plan procurement. “The objective is to make thing easier, faster and transparent for Delhi residents. People will not need to visit corporation offices frequently once the new laws come into force. It will also help to curb corruption,” said an official of South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s engineering department.

However, the official said the three corporations had an online system for building plan approval under which 35-40 applications are cleared every month.

Pankaj Aggarwal, general secretary of Efforts Group (an umbrella organization of RWAs), said the initiative would not be of great help as it dealt with small plots.

“The standard building plans prepared for residential plots up to 105 sqm will suit the rehabilitation colonies only because in the planned colonies, where minimum plot size is 125 sqm,” said the Safdarjung Enclave resident.

While the standard procedure ensures quick approval of the building plan, the laws don’t promise corruption elimination, he said. “Any engineer with malefide intension can raise objection at any level and stop the construction.”