GUWAHATI, March 10 � Engineers, architects and promoters have hailed the new city building bye-laws � The Guwahati Building Construction (Regulation) Bye-laws, 2014, which came into force on March 1.
The new building bye-laws have incorporated the earthquake-resistant feature as a part, said Prof Jayanta Pathak of the Assam Engineering College�s Civil Engineering Department. Prof Pathak was one of the leading experts in preparing the city�s earthquake micro-zonation reports, besides being associated with the process of preparing the building bye-laws.
He maintained that the new bye-laws have given renewed thought to construction activities in hilly areas, incorporating specific conditions to enhance safety of buildings and life. Moreover, the bye-laws have given due consideration to regulate construction in the low-lying areas and in the proximity of the wetlands, he said.
Assam Real Estate and Infrastructure Developers� Association (AREIDA) president Pranab Kumar Sarma described the regulations as citizen-friendly. These have completely eliminated the procedural loopholes, providing relief to the citizens.
These bye-laws have fixed a total time limit of 75 days to reject an application with a reasoned order, or else, the prayers for construction would be deemed to have been granted, and construction work can be started after ten days� prior intimation to the authorities, he said.
The new regulations have laid special stress on protection of the city�s ecology and provided for incentives for green buildings. They have provisions for road widening in existing areas through acquisition of private land, but incentivising it with compensatory built-up area to the landowners, as well as revenue generating provisions for development work, he said.
Architects� Association, Assam president PC Morol said the regulations have considerably reduced the Floor Area Ratio (FAR), compared to the previous one.
Those who take up construction on big plots of land located by wide roads, would now be getting more FAR, compared to those resorting to construction on small plots by narrow roads. This is aimed at reducing the overall population density in localities situated by the narrow roads.
These regulations have provided for three types of development zones � high and medium, low and very low. The very low zone is called the conservation area, where development activities are sought to be discouraged, he said.
Besides, the regulations have provided for two stages of permission � the first phase for planning permit, authorising the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) for it, and the second phase for according building permission, authorising the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) for it.
If the road is more than 15 metres wide and the plot of land is more than five bighas in size, there will be no restriction on building height, he said.
On big plots of land over 1.5 hectares in size, ten per cent of the land should be earmarked for sheltering the people of the economically weaker sections by both the public and private promoters with the provision to benefit the compliant private promoters with 10 to 25 per cent additional FAR, Morol said.
