STPs may become mandatory for apartments in Vijayawada

The new norm, together with Revised Building Rules and GO 45, may hit construction activity further

UNDP disaster risk management project officer Abha Mishra, Joint Collector Usha Kumari, Municipal Commissioner Md. Abdul Azeem at a city level consultation on 'GOI-UNDP climate risk management project in urban areas through preparedness and mitigation' organised in Vijayawada on Friday. Photo: V. Raju

After Revised Building Rules (RBR) and GO 45 that took a toll on the realty sector in the city, another bolt from the blue is likely in near future. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is contemplating making it mandatory to construct a sewerage treatment plant (STP) in apartments and government offices.

If the proposal were to be implemented, the construction (apartments) activity would be hit badly. On an average, at least 50 apartments are constructed every year in the city. Though the number is dwindling in the city limits due to scarcity of land, and other various factors like RBR and GO 45, the construction activity is still on.

The RBR mandates an applicant to mortgage 10 per cent of the built-up area. GO 45 makes it mandatory for all housing projects in the State (both government and private) to earmark 20 per cent of the developed land for economically weaker sections and low-income groups.

In the city, about 50 apartments and 2,500 individual houses used to be constructed every year on an average before the RBR was introduced. The Town Planning wing used to process 250 to 300 building applications every month. But the number has now come down to 30 to 40 applications a month after the RBR was introduced in 2009.

The VMC receives on an average 1,500 applications for sanction of plan for individual houses, while it is around 150 applications for commercial buildings every year.

Of them, about 50 per cent applications are related to plans proposed in plots of less than 300 sq. metres in size. Senior builder Gadde Rajling feels that the proposal is not possible to implement if it were to be extended to apartments coming up in a radius of 500 sq. yards or 1,000 sq.yards. “The venture should be at least in one acre. More so, the government must first amend the building bylaws, and the Corporation cannot implement such rules on its own,” he says.

“This kind of system is in vogue in Pune. It will help in achieving the green mission goal. A team will be sent to Pune Municipal Corporation to study it,” says Municipal Commissioner Md. Abdul Azeem.