Height, floor area on buildings face curbs in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: The technolegal regime team constituted to make recommendations to the building rules as per Prof Arya committee report has suggested a series of measures, including reducing the floor area ratio (FAR) and height of buildings to ensure safety and security of buildings in the state.

Sources said the expert group recommendations are totally against the relaxation granted in Kerala Municipality Building (Amendment) Rules 2013 in  floor area ratio and building height. The 2013 amendment had allowed construction of building with FAR up to 3 without the payment of additional fee.

The FAR limit earlier was up to 1.5.

The report finalised by the committee comprising town planners, engineering college professors and disaster management experts has recommended that the existing norm for floor area ratio and height of buildings be lowered. The report has opposed the provision of providing open space in any of the floors in case of high rise buildings. The expert panel has insisted that in multi-storied buildings, the open space should be provided on the ground.

Besides, the panel has recommended that the norms for issuing licences and NOCs for building construction should be strictly adhered to. It wanted strict monitoring of safety conditions in five-storied and ten-storied buildings in urban and rural centres, checking shops and business establishments near residential areas which could pose safety hazards, removal of  overhead electrical wires which are dangling dangerously, widening of congested and narrow lanes which create huge inconvenience for fire tenders to reach disaster spots in time and checking  unplanned vertical constructions of buildings and blatant violation of the building rules.