Hyderabad: Builders flout rules in peri-urban areas

Hyderabad: The lacunae in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Area’s master plan are a boon for builders and developers and a bane for consumers.

Due to the apathy of the municipal authority’s planning department, mega structures have been mushrooming in peri-urban zones including Farooqnagar, Shabad, Chevella, Sangareddy, Bibinagar, Bhongir, Choutuppal and other areas in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Area.

In peri-urban zones, buildings are allowed with a ground coverage not exceeding 25 per cent with 18 metres and 15 metres height restriction for residential and non-residential uses. In peri-urban zones, other uses allowed are holiday resorts, film studios, recreational outdoor activity, institutional activity, specified parks, etc.

However, builders have obtained permission from HMDA to erect structures in the peri-urban zone covering more than 50 per cent of the ground and selling them to consumers, who are now in trouble with local authorities for deviating from the building plan and violating zoning regulations.

The trend has recently begun due to rapid expansion of the city due to proposals like the regional ring road and other projects in the pipeline. If these irregularities are not curbed immediately, hundreds of citizens will fall prey to the crooked builders by purchasing illegal plots/buildings.

Peri-urban land use is earmarked as a belt of about 1 km to 1.5 km all along R1, which are urban areas contiguous to the ORR Growth Corridor (ORR-GC) and R2 which are urban nodes to act as a continuum between urbanisable and rural areas.

Low intensive building activities with low ground coverage is permissible in this peri-urban zone. These are second order developments, identified spatially, which have the potential to grow and higher levels of facilities are proposed in these pockets. They are scattered all around the HMA region and will function as nodal developments in the extended area. There are 13 urban nodes proposed — at Farooqnagar, Shabad, Chevella, Sangareddy, Jeedipalle, Tupran, Bibinagar, Bhongir, Malkapur, Choutuppal, Ibrahimpatnam, Gundlaguda and Daudguda.

According to highly placed sources in the HMDA, of late builders are obtaining permission from the municipal authority and exceeding the permissible area.

The sources said that the ever since the announcement of the RRR and expansion of IT offices in the eastern part of the city, the realty boom has picked up pace.

Though builders have been marking layouts according to HMDA norms, they have been erecting structures violating the norms and selling these to consumers who are unaware of the clauses in the peri-urban zone.

The HMDA has also suspended four officials for changing land use of peri-urban zones in Shankarpally and other areas in 2017. However, municipal authority officials claim that they are unaware of such cases and even in the peri-urban zone itself.

When this reporter tried to contact the HMDA planning department officials, they were unavailable for comment.