Darjeeling municipality demolished a portion of a building that flouted height rules to kickstart a drive against high-rises in Darjeeling.

Municipality workers demolished the sixth floor of a building in ward 10, Toongsoong area.

Under Rule 162 of West Bengal Municipality Building Rule 2007, hill municipalities can sanction building plans up to a height of 11.5 metres. Civic bodies have to get prior approval of the state government for construction up to 13.5 metres.

Experts say 11.5 metres roughly translates into a four-storey building.

Civic officials said that the drive would continue against other high-rises flouting the rule that have come up during this tenure of the civic board under Hamro Party.

Ritesh Portel, chairman, Darjeeling municipality, said the decision to start the demolition drive was approved by the board of councillors. “We served notices to eight buildings. Owners of four went to court and hearing is on November 14,” said Portel.

Asha Sundas, owner of the building hose illegal parts were demolished on Thursday, said she had handed over the property to real estate developers. “We had a sanctioned building plan of four storeys but developers seem to have added two more floors. I was staying with my son in Calcutta of late,” said Sundas.

The municipality had asked Sundas to dismantle the illegal portion on September 9.

The cost of dismantling the illegal part has to be borne by Sundas.

Hamro Party president Ajoy Edwards said the party had promised action against illegal construction in their election manifesto for civic polls.

“I can understand the pain of owners (whose houses are set to be dismantled) but we have to take hard decisions at times for the betterment of the place,” said Edwards.

Edwards had earlier said that Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was also concerned about the high-rises in Darjeeling town and had conveyed the same during a meeting a few months back.

In 2015, the Darjeeling civic body had identified 337 illegal high rises in just eight of the 32 wards in Darjeeling. The same year notices were sent to 61 buildings but no concrete action was taken.

The eight wards covered the Chowrasta, Chowk Bazar, Judge Bazar area, the main business area in Darjeeling town.

Over the years, a few building slabs have been dismantled but many of those buildings have carried on with the constructions turning the hill town into a concrete jungle, making the region unsafe and obstructing views.

In 2012, the civic board said that it would “impose hefty fines” on illegal buildings and thus regularise these structures. Boards previous to 2012 were also following the practice without making any public announcement.

However, there is a court order for another civic body in the state that states illegal constructions cannot be regularised by imposing a fine.

“As of now we are only looking at those structures that have illegally come up during our tenure,” said Portel.