4,000 buildings in Koramangala under BMP scanner for violations

4,000 buildings in Koramangala under BMP scanner for violations

The Hindu

A team of 20 engineers is surveying all the properties for violation of building by-law

# Preliminary notices issued to property owners or tenants wherever violations were noted
# Survey taken up following High Court instructions
# Action taken report prepared

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is carrying out a survey of 4,000 buildings, including residential structures, in Koramangala.

Sources told The Hindu that a team of 20 engineers is working to survey the locality and pinpoint violations in the building norms and in the illegal change in land use.

Whenever the BMP comes across the violations, it is issuing preliminary notices (PO) to the owners and tenants of such properties.

The BMP has physically surveyed 1,793 properties apart from the 457 properties inspected. In all, till July 1, it surveyed 2,250 properties and issued POs under Section 321 (1) and (2) of the Karnataka Municipal Council (KMC) Act to owners or tenants of 80 buildings.

Of the 2,250 buildings surveyed so far, 126 are in Koramangala 1st Block, 258 in 3rd Block, 203 in 4th Block, 202 in 5th Block, 914 in 6th Block, 441 in 7th Block and 106 in the 8th Block. The survey reports of all these buildings, a majority of which have violations, have been prepared. The owners of many buildings have approached the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal and obtained stay of proceedings.

Hotels

On the issue of hotels in residential areas, three hotels managed to obtain a stay from the appellate tribunal on proceedings. One shop selling sweets has obtained a stay. The BMP said it filed caveats before the appellate tribunal and other courts. It said the violations were removed after following the procedures laid down in the KMC Act. It said four buildings, which were demolished on June 29 and 30, had the highest deviations ranging from 121.6 per cent to 53.14 per cent. All these buildings violated the zoning regulations and building by-laws. The BMP has prepared an action taken report on the Koramangala violations. The report in tabular form listed the survey number of the sites, the date of issue of PO and CO, the percentage of deviations and remarks on the action taken or pending. The BMP is taking up the survey after the Karnataka High Court took it to task for not acting on the violations. The court had asked the BMP to inspect Koramangala and file survey reports and action taken reports.