For the residents of around 50 wards in the Corporation area, the State government’s notification of the Interim Development Order (IDO) in the city Corporation two days ago, has come as a relief.
Ever since the freezing of the previous Draft Master Plan three years ago, residents in several wards have been facing issues to get their building permits approved.
When the draft master plan 2013 was scrapped due to opposition from residents, close to 50 wards, which were added to the Corporation in recent years, ended up without a sanctioned master plan. Only the core areas of the city comes under the previous sanctioned master plan, prepared in 1971.
Without an Interim Development Order in place, building permit applications in such areas that came near green strips had to be forwarded from the Corporation to the Regional Town Planner. There have been quite a few rejections in this period.
In the IDO, residential buildings till 300 square metres are allowed in plots of area between 3 and 10 cents. In the case of plots of area between 10 and 25 cents, residential buildings till 400 square metres are allowed. All other construction purposes are limited to 200 square metres.
But, former Additional Chief Town Planner Jacob Easow who prepared the Master Plan of 2013, has criticised the delay in issuing the Interim Development Order.
“The first master plan was prepared for period 1966 to 1986. Even though the second master plan was prepared and published in 1994, it was not sanctioned by the Government. After 19 years, the third master plan (draft) was prepared and published in 2013, but it was scrapped due to objections. Now an Interim Development Order(IDO) has been released. This could have been done in 2013 or 2014 itself. Why did we waste all this time in issuing the IDO?” he asks.
However, Corporation officials say that the IDO could not have been initiated until the preparation of the new Master Plan had officially begun.
“The process to prepare the new Master Plan began only earlier this year. So, IDO could be notified only after that,” said the official.
The IDO will be in force until the approval of the new Master Plan. Though December was the earlier deadline for the Master Plan, it is expected to take at least an year more, going by its current pace.
