LPA seals two unapproved buildings

The land on which the buildings were coming up is still classified as agricultural land

An official of the Coimbatore Local Planning Authority sealing a building under construction at Kovai Kondattam in Coimbatore on Wednesday.

Officials of the Coimbatore Local Planning Authority on Wednesday sealed two buildings that are under construction here as these did not have building plan approval.

Member Secretary of the LPA C. Mathivanan told The Hindu that construction was under way for one block each at RVS Engineering College and RVS Dental College. The block at the engineering college was ground plus three floors (60,000 sq.ft.) and the one at dental college was also ground plus three floors (20,000 sq.ft.). There was no building plan approval for these new blocks.

Further, the land on which the buildings were coming up is still classified as agricultural land. The LPA gave the final notice in February and the officials inspected the college a week ago.

The college authorities are expected to apply for approval shortly.

The other building that was sealed on Wednesday was a resort coming up at Kovai Kondattam. While the theme park had approval for its children play area, etc, nine units were coming up without building plan approval on 3.18 acres as part of the resort project with a total built-up area of 20,000 sq.ft.

The land use classification for this project was still agricultural and it was violating Hill Area Conservation Authority norms too.

Mr. Mathivanan said that the LPA officials inspected five colleges. Of the 180 colleges in the Coimbatore LPA area, 30 had approval and about 25 had applied for approval.

The rest did not have building plan approval. The officials will continue to inspect buildings without approval. Action was taken only on buildings under construction without approval so that it does not affect the existing courses and students.

In the case of multi-storeyed commercial buildings that had violated building norms or did not have approval and were sealed three years ago, 16 had obtained permission to set right the violations in six months, he added.

Sources, in RVS Group said that the Local Planning Authority had sealed an under-construction hostel. After applying for the approval in July 2014, the Group went ahead with the four-floor hostel construction and had by April 15, 2015 completed 90 per cent of the construction.

But meanwhile, the Local Planning Authority, citing discrepancies, had rejected the plan.

The group administration would reply to the Authority's rejection order to resume the construction.