The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has started consultations with various stakeholders about some proposed changes to the Building Rules 2009, which govern the construction of new buildings and changes to existing ones, officials in the civic body said.
The civic body had proposed some changes to the rules and sent them to the state government for its nod. But the state sent the proposals back to the KMC and asked it to have wider consultations with stakeholders who will be impacted by the changes.
The KMC has set up a committee with officials from the organisation as well outsiders for the consultations. “We have already held meetings with architects and licensed building surveyors,” said a KMC official.
Architects and licensed building surveyors prepare the designs of proposed buildings.
The Telegraph had in January last year reported that the civic body was mulling changes to the building rules.
The proposed changes that are being discussed include a tweak to the required width of the road in front of a building. The height of a building and the ground coverage (the area of the plot where construction is allowed) depend on the width of the road in front of the plot.
A KMC official had earlier said that only the width of the road right in front of the plot was taken into account to determine the height and the ground coverage of the building.
“According to a proposal being considered, the average width of the road will be calculated taking into account the width along the 25m stretch on either side of the plot. The height and ground coverage of the building will be determined based on the average,” the official said.
“This is being done to ensure that residents of the building have sufficient space for entry and exit.”
Another proposal under consideration is a change in the rule that decides how much parking space a building is allowed to have. The new calculation may see an increase in the parking space in a building, the official said.
The committee is also trying to formulate definitions for big, mass and affordable housing projects. The definitions will mention the plot size for the various categories and the minimum number of units each is required to have.
“The building rules were last updated more than a decade ago, in 2009. It’s time some changes were introduced,” an official said. “Before 2009, the rules had been revised in 1990.”
The KMC will have to consult police and the fire department, too, before they finalise the draft and send it to the state government again.