Zonal regulations in BDA kiosks

Zonal regulations in BDA kiosks
The BDA, to bring in more transparency and reduce hassles for building licence applicants, will provide zonal regulations in all its kiosks


In a few months the State Government would approve the new Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP). With the approval of the dynamic CDP a whole lot of new rules, regulations, guidelines and policies will come into effect that will act as a blueprint for the development of Bangalore. Among other features of the CDP are zonal regulations.

The land use zonal regulations play a significant role in the CDP, as it governs all developments and regulates activity within the local planning area of 1,306 sq km. This time around the zonal regulations has narrowed the scope for delays or denials to applicants. The new regulation clearly defines each land use and classifies every kind of building. The proposed CDP also encourages the philosophy of vertical growth. It has made provisions for additional floorarea ratio (FAR) in some areas. However, they come with certain conditions.

To bring in more transparency and reduce hassles for building license applicants the BDA is all set to install a GIS-based software that will display information on zonal regulations, land use pattern and applicable bye-laws in all the BDA kiosks across the city. The BDA has divided Bangalore into main areas, specific areas and constraint areas under which it has proposed land regulations in the draft CDP. The FAR, change of land use, purpose of the building, and bye-laws applicable will be determined under these categories.

Suppose a person wants to know the bye-laws and land use for a particular property, all he has to do is to get into a BDA information kiosk and key in his address in the search category of the GISbased programme. A window will pop up giving all the details pertaining to zonal regulations applicable to that particular property, including, land use pattern, byelaws etc.

The main areas category of the city has been grouped into five areas for regulations - old urban areas, urban redevelopment areas, residential areas, industrial activity areas and green areas. Specific areas comprise large and semi public infrastructures, large transportation structures, dedicated land uses, special scheme areas and heritage conservation areas. Constraint areas are areas which have restrictions on type of development.

Rainwater harvesting The CDP 2005 has also proposed to the government to make rainwater harvesting mandatory while sanctioning building plans. The BDA Commissioner M N Vidyashankar says, "the depletion of ground water levels in last 10 years has been alarming. Under the present circumstances it was inevitable but to make provision for rainwater harvesting as a bye-law". In the case of a new home, investments in time, design and money are minimal. Those who have already built houses too can harvest rainwater by reworking sections of the roof. A community approach is required to adopt rainwater harvesting for apartment blocks. The initiative is already gaining momentum in Bangalore with several new houses and industries adopting the rainwater harvesting technology. However, it was felt that a government regulation was much needed.

Rainwater harvesting also lessens local erosion and flooding caused by impervious cover such as pavement and roof. Thus, storm water run-off, the normal consequence of rainfall, which picks contaminants and degrades waterways and streams, become captured rainfall that can be put to productive use.