GHMC gears up to clear pending BPS applications

GHMC has decided on a five-pronged strategy to clear the pending applications of the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) that was held up due to the delay in getting fire safety and urban land clearance.

The government has recently issued orders extending the last date for clearing such applications till the year end in all urban bodies throughout the State. However, it was also made clear that no new applications would be considered during this period.

The municipal corporation has about 27,860 BPS applications while other urban areas have nearly 14,000 such applications.

To begin with, the Assistant City Planners (ACP) and section officers concerned have been directed to verify each and every building scheduled for clearance. Following this, the Deputy Commissioners of the municipal circle will have to check at least 20 per cent of the buildings randomly, said Additional Commissioner (Planning) K. Dhananjaya Reddy.

The municipal officials have also been asked to see whether the building was on site in 2008 when the BPS was launched with the help of Google Earth maps. It will also be ascertained if the buildings under the scanner have taken power and water connections too.

The pending applications would be cleared only if all the above mentioned criteria are fulfilled. If the government and municipal authorities are being doubly careful, it is only because there have been similar instances in the Kukatpally circle where buildings which came up later were included in the BPS ambit illegally, leading to a vigilance probe.

Pending BPS applications are mostly located in the East Zone: Kapra, Uppal, L.B.Nagar (6,693), followed by North Zone: Qutbullapur, Alwal, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad (5,544) and Central Zone: Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki, Himayatnagar, Musheerabad, Domalguda, Khairatabad, Ameerpet, Jubilee Hills, etc. There are 3,886 applications in West Zone or Serlingampally, Gachibowli & Kukatpally and 3,679 applications in old city.