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Urban Planning

GHMC reconstitutes panel for multi-storied buildings

Monday, 31 August 2009 00:58 administrator
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The Hindu 31.08.2009

GHMC reconstitutes panel for multi-storied buildings

Chief City Planner to continue as the Convenor

HYDERABAD: While the GHMC is busy clearing applications filed under Building Penalisation and Layout Regularisation Schemes, Commissioner and Special Officer S.P. Singh has quietly reconstituted the Hyderabad Multi-Storied Building Regulations (MSBR) Committee.

Orders issued in his capacity as also the Ex-officio Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Mr. Singh removed the sole outside expert in the committee i.e. existing chairman of the State chapter of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) as a MSBR member.

Henceforth, the high-powered committee which vets all building applications of above 15 metres high will have GHMC Chief Engineer, HMDA Chief Planning Officer, HMDA’s Director (Planning) or Chief Planning Officer and the Director of Town & Country Planning as members. GHMC’s Chief City Planner will continue to be the Convenor of the now four-member committee.

Incidentally, even last year when the government had re-constituted building committees, it thought it fit to retain IIA’s State Chapter chairman as the member. Mr. Singh has cited “circumstances” in revising the committee membership deleting the architect’s role now.

Sudden development

Official sources said that the sudden reconstitution was triggered following complaint against the current chairman, D.T. Vinod Kumar, that he had attended MSBR meetings from 2006 to 2008 even when he was not the chairman during that time.

An outside expert with architectural knowledge was incorporated into the multi-storied building committees of both erstwhile MCH and HUDA from 1981 onwards for scrutiny of the high rise plans submitted and give recommendations. “It’s sad news for the profession in particular and society in general. The then Director of Town & Country Planning, Venkataramana Reddy incorporated architects into the panel keeping in view the role of architecture in urban development. Otherwise, it will be mere file pushing by the officials concerned,” said a senior architect, a past member of the committee.

Official sources, however, maintain there was enough expertise in the government to deal with even complex technical issues what with the common building rules coming into force. In the same breath, it is also admitted that having an opinion outside the government perspective in scrutinising multi-storied buildings has its uses.

Last Updated on Monday, 31 August 2009 01:03
 

GMADA to remove another slum

Thursday, 27 August 2009 11:23 administrator
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Indian Express 27.08.2009

GMADA to remove another slum

The greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) served a notice on Wednesday to remove another slum area in Mohali. Nearly 400 slum dwellers, illegally inhabiting in around 50 hutments of Guru Nanak Colony for the past 16 years have been asked to voluntarily vacate prime land in Phase-I here within two days, GMADA Sub-Divisional Officer (Buildings) Santosh Kumar Bains told Newsline.

An enforcement team of GMADA visited the colony to pull down the illegal encroachments but in the absence of adequate police protection, the team leader decided to serve the notice instead of going ahead with the demolition drive.

“There were a large number of women in the colony, who were ready to resist the anti-encroachment drive, but we did not have female cops to tackle them in case of trouble arising in the operation,” reasoned Bains.

The slum colony was razed way back in 1993 but it again resurfaced in the absence of any follow-up action to utilise the vacated area. The slum dwellers later approached the court to seek rehabilitation

“Till now, we remained under the impression that slum dwellers had procured a stay order from the court against their uprooting but after seeking legal advice, it came to our knowledge that there was no legal hitch in removing the slums,” revealed a GMADA official.

Meanwhile, GMADA did remove the temporary encroachments in the form of police pickets and security tents on the land meant for roads, green belts and parks for security forces today, in Phase VI, 3B1, VII and Sector 70 and 71 here.

“Till now, we remained under the impression that slum dwellers had procured a stay order from the court against their uprooting but after seeking legal advice, it came to our knowledge that there was no legal hitch in removing the slums,” revealed a GMADA official.

Meanwhile, GMADA did remove the temporary encroachments in the form of police pickets and security tents on the land meant for roads, green belts and parks for security forces today, in Phase VI, 3B1, VII and Sector 70 and 71 here.

 

 

 

City buildings pose grave threat

Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:51 administrator
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Deccan Chronicle 27.08.2009

City buildings pose grave threat

August 27th, 2009
By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad

Aug. 26: There are over 300 dilapidated buildings in city which can collapse any time in heavy rains, endangering many lives.

Though grave danger looms over the residents of these buildings and those in the neighbourhood, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has not evacuated the inmates of these buildings yet.

The civic body says inmates of these buildings have been refusing to move out. Besides, most of them are long-standing tenants and some have moved court against the owners.

Structural engineers had identified 726 buildings in the city as dilapidated and unsafe for human habitation, of which 350 were pulled down in the last seven years.

However, authorities have not conducted any inspection this year to check the status of the remaining 376 despite the fact that heavy rains could trigger the collapse of these buildings.

During the rainy season in 2007, three persons died in a building collapse in Gunfoundry, prompting the Corporation to demolish a number of buildings that were listed as uninhabitable.

The building that collapsed at Gunfoundry was listed as dangerous. After the mishap, the State Human Rights Commission asked the civic body to pull down uninhabitable buildings. In 2008 too, about two dozen buildings were razed by the GHMC.

However, this year not a single building has been touched so far.

“The reluctance of the residents to vacate is more out of helplessness due to economic constraints. Most of them are long-standing tenants paying paltry rents. They are not in a position to move out to safe buildings whose rents they cannot afford,” an official of the GHMC said.

The GHMC chief city planner, Mr Purushothama Reddy, said the demolition of the rest of the buildings on the danger list will be carried out after the Ganesh festival.

 
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