Puri: Several Kalyan Mandaps have come up in the Pilgrim City here flouting the norms laid down by the Puri-Konark Development Authority (PKDA), the nodal agency approving building plans in the locality.
These illegal Kalyan Mandaps have exacerbated traffic problems in some areas of the city and caused environmental pollution. However, the administration is yet to take any action on these illegal structures.
As per the Building Standard Regulation-2017 of the PKDA, a private individual or institution requires at least 1,000 square metres of land to construct a welfare centre. There must a 40-feet wide road to the plot identified for construction of the mandap. The promoter of the welfare centre should leave at least 45 per cent of the plot for parking of vehicles and must have received no objection certificates (NOCs) from the fire services department, Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), the municipal body and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
However, a majority of 30-odd Kalyan Mandaps of the city have come up without the prior approval of the PKDA. Most of these welfare centres do not have parking lots. So people thronging these structures during wedding and thread ceremonies usually park their vehicles on roads.
The unregulated parking of vehicles near Kalyan Mandaps often causes traffic problems on crucial roads in the city, including the Grand Road, sources said.
Moreover, these welfare centres do not have in place proper waste management system. So, people organising ceremonies at these centres litter the roads.
“Most of the Kalyan Mandaps in the city do not have the mandatory licences from the civic body. That is why the municipal body is losing huge revenues,” said a source. Municipality chairperson Jayanta Sarangi said they will soon launch a survey to find out all illegal Kalyan Mandaps in the city.
Collector and PKDA vice-chairman Aravind Agarwal said the administration has initiated measures to ban organisation of ceremonies at welfare centres having no parking lots. “We have written to the superintendent of police asking him not allow any ceremony at hotels, lodgings and Kalyan Mandaps having no facility for parking of vehicles,” Agarwal added.
PNN
