Kerala: Bar on houses to be lifted in Master Plan

Thiruvananthapuram: Restrictions on building houses in ‘green-to-planned-development’ areas and ‘strategically important’ zones, as recommended in the draft Master Plan, will be lifted to a great extent, if the Interim Development Order is passed. An all-party meeting to discuss it has been convened on Friday. “Relaxation has been recommended on construction in green-to-planned-development areas. Ideas like land pooling will not be implemented right now. The IDO, is being studied by councillors, and will be discussed on Friday,” said Mayor V K Prasanth.

The only restriction on residential buildings in 3 cents of land in these areas is the Kerala Municipal Building Rules (KMBR). People will be allowed to construct houses with an area of 300 sq km, in up to 10 cents of land and with an area of 400 sq km, in up to 25 cents, in the green zones.   The draft plan had run into a lot of controversy, especially because of the green strips in Kazhakkoottam and Kattayikkonam wards.

In the draft plan, which was scrapped, the Town Planning Department has earmarked areas near VSSC and BrahMos Aerospace – like Attipra and Kadakampalli – as strategically important zones. Here too construction was not allowed. In the Interim Order, these have been marked as mixed use areas. The concept of land pooling will be recommended only if there is widespread consensus on it.

“People of an area will be asked to pool their land, so that a common facility can be built. The residents will also have to contribute towards the cost of constructing the facility. Eventually, the people of the area will own the facility. That is the idea of land pooling. It will be discussed among the public, before it can be implemented,” said an official.