Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), a nodal agency to approve plans for commercial as well as residential buildings in the Capital City, has recently brought certain amendments to the Planning and Building Standard Regulation, originally framed in 2013.
It is learnt that the amended regulations are liberal towards construction of apartment blocks and shopping malls but has some stringent provisions for private residential buildings.
Sources said, the BDA will enforce the Planning and Building Standard Regulation-2017 in the city within a month or two after receiving the state government’s approval in this regard.
The new regulation has reduced mandatory offset parking space for apartment blocks, commercial buildings, multi-storey structures, hotels, restaurants and Kalyan Mandaps in comparison to the earlier regulation.
The earlier regulation had made it mandatory that people constructing shopping complexes, hotels, Kalyan Mandaps and movie theatres would leave 60 per cent of their built-up areas for parking and other purposes. However, the new regulation has brought down the parking space to 40 per cent of the built-up areas, sources said.
As per the amended building construction guidelines, restaurants, lodging houses, hospitals, offices, conference halls and retail shops will have 30 per cent built-up space for parking lots, at least 10 per cent less than the earlier 40 per cent.
The new regulation has reduced parking space for apartment blocks, nursing homes and clinics from 30 per cent of the built-up area to 25 per cent.
According to the new norms, private builders must register themselves with the BDA to construct housing and commercial complexes. Otherwise, they will not get their building plans sanctioned. Any violation of the BDA rules relating to building plans will lead to action against the builders, sources said.
The amended guidelines have put certain restrictions on construction of buildings in heritage zones of the Capital City too.
The BDA will not permit any building taller than 15 metres in heritage zones. Moreover, people need mandatory approval from the Archaeology departments of the Centre and state to construct structures on 500 square metre area and with heights above 10 metres.
Similarly, the new Planning and Building Standard Regulation has banned construction of permanent structures on more than 4,000 square metres area in the eco-sensitive zones of the city.
The proposed new norms have raised setback area for residential buildings. Now, people constructing houses on plots within 100 square metres are required to leave setbacks of 1 metre around the buildings. However, the earlier regulation had made it mandatory for only front setbacks for such structures.
As per the amended regulation, people constructing residential complexes on up to 750 square metres must have setbacks within the range of 4 metres on every side. It has also raised setback area to 8 metres on all sides for houses taller than 21 metres, at least a metre more than the earlier norms, sources said.
The proposed building standard regulation has made rainwater harvesting and solar energy projects compulsory for any residential building constructed on 300 square metre plots or beyond that.
According to sources, BDA has formed a 21-member panel to approve plans for mega complexes in the city and resolve disputes relating to construction of houses and commercial structures.
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