After having spent ₹40.78 crore and completed construction of a multi-level car parking facility on D.B. Road, R.S. Puram, the Coimbatore Corporation finds itself in a spot where it is unable to throw open the space for use.
The Corporation sources said the civic body was awaiting power connection and to get to the power connection it needed the completion certificate from the Local Planning Authority.
To get the completion certificate, the civic body needed the planning permission, which it did not have.
The Corporation had taken up the multi-level car parking construction in 2019. It was supposed to have obtained the planning permission prior to the start of the construction but it did not. By then the State government had framed the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019, which mandated that the Tangedco should give power connection only if there was completion certificate.
That the Corporation went ahead with the construction without obtaining the planning permission was delaying the opening of the facility, the sources said. The civic body had approached the Local Planning Authority, Coimbatore, a couple of months ago for planning permission.
The Coimbatore office had forwarded the Corporation’s application to the Directorate of Town and Country Planning in Chennai. Once it obtained the planning permission, it would apply for completion certificate and then for the power connection.
The Corporation had constructed the parking facility with 370 parking spaces to decongest the D.B. Road and neighbouring streets in R.S. Puram.
The Corporation not following the rules and failing to obtain planning permission and completion certificate made one wonder why it was difficult for a government organisation to follow rules, asked activist K. Kathirmathiyon.
The Corporation was not alone in violating the 2019 Rule. There were several government offices that respective departments had constructed without taking planning permission, he said.
The Corporation sources said the civic body had applied for the planning permission more than a month ago and was expecting approval any time in the near future.
