The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has empowered borough-level engineers to approve building plans on thika plots, putting an end to a system that allowed only engineers at the civic body’s headquarters to approve building plans on these plots.
The decentralisation is likely to speed up the approval of plans for new buildings on thika plots, said KMC officials and real estate builders.
Borough-level engineers have been approving building plans on non-thika plots for years but they did not have the same power for thika plots.
A circular issued last month by the KMC’s building department said: “it is decided that building sanctioned plans on thika tenanted land will be granted by respective Executive Engineers (Civil) and Assitant Engineers (Civil) of respective boroughs.”
It added that “buildings plans will be issued within 15 (fifteen) days from the date of receipt of the application provided all required documents are in order.”
Executive engineers and assistant engineers in each borough have been approving building plans on non-thika plots for years and only very large projects are approved by the municipal building committee, which comprises senior KMC engineers, external experts, police and architects.
Thika plots were once owned by zamindars.
After the zamindari system was abolished post-Independence, the government became the owner of these lands. The occupiers of the plots were made thika tenants. These tenants, later over many years, sublet the properties to others, who came to be known as bharatiyas.
Most of the thika plots in the state are spread across Kolkata, Howrah and Asansol.
According to one estimate, there are about 2,000 acres of thika land in Kolkata and over 500 acres in Howrah.
At present, the thika plots are owned by the government but the plots have been leased out to the tenants, who enjoy certain rights.
The state government has eased several regulations and taken some other steps over the last few years to make it easier for tenants on thika plots to use the land for the construction of new buildings.
A bar on the construction of buildings more than 9.5metres in height was removed and taller buildings can now be built on thika plots.
The KMC has also opened a special cell where tenants and bharatiyas of thika plots can enlist themselves.
An office of the thika controller — a no-objection certificate is required from the thika controller’s office for new construction on thika land — has also opened in the KMC’s headquarters on SN Banerjee Road.
Officials said having the thika controller’s office under the same roof as the KMC has helped tenants.
The decision to allow borough executive engineers and assistant engineers to approve building plans on thika plots is another step toward making new construction on thika plots easier, said KMC officials.
Nandu Belani, the Bengal president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (Credai), welcomed the decision.
“There has been a surge in construction activities on thika land since the government eased regulations and made construction easier on these plots,” he said.
Belani said he believed decentralising the building plan approval will “further make it easier to construct buildings on thika land”.
Another real estate developer said that it will particularly benefit builders who work within a small area. They will not have to run to the head office of KMC for all clarifications but can do so in the borough office closer to home.
The builder, however, added that the KMC should now think about a system where builders have to only submit the building plan for approval and the KMC will obtain the NOC from thika controller. Currently, the builder has to obtain the NOC.