Kerala Municipality Building (Amendment) Rules 2013, which relaxes floor area ratio (FAR) and height of buildings, has been challenged in the Kerala High Court.
In his writ petition, former Kochi Corporation Mayor C.M. Dinesh Mani said the amendments had been brought in to protect the interests of builders, while undermining public safety and security.
According to him, if the amended rules were implemented, it would result in “anarchy in the field of building construction”.
As per the amended provisions, one could construct a building with FAR up to 3 without the payment of additional fee, whereas the earlier FAR limit was up to 1.5. As a result, 90 per cent of the builders were exempted from the payment of the additional fee, leading to a loss of crores of rupees to the public exchequer.
‘Threat to safety’
The amendments were a threat to safety measures contemplated by the National Building Code and KMBR, 1999. It also regularized all unauthorised constructions and land developments carried out before March, 31 2013 on payment of compounding fee.
The petitioner said there had been no attempt on the part of the government to seek opinions from the Town and Country Planning Organisation, Disaster Management Authority, Environment Department, Director of Fire Force and the public.
The petitioner sought a directive to bring amendments to KMBR, 1999, only after obtaining suggestions and opinions from the Disaster Management Authority, Environment Department, Town and Country Planning Organisation and the public including the residents associations.
The court has adjourned the hearing on the petition to next week to enable the government to respond.
