Rajasthan comes up with new draft township policy, invites suggestions

The Rajasthan government has come up with a fresh draft township policy and building by-laws and has invited suggestions from people and all the stakeholders.

According to the new draft policy, a developer will be responsible for the maintenance of units sold in their township for seven years. And these townships will only be developed in areas marked by the authorities, which will make sure that all facilities -- like water and electricity supply -- are available in that region.

For integrated residential townships, it will be mandatory for developers to provide roads, electricity and water. Group housing will have to be developed in 40 per cent of the township area. In townships larger than 2 hectares, it will be necessary to leave at least 3 per cent space for a playground and at least 2.5 per cent of the total land will have to be reserved for seven years. It cannot be sold.

The draft policy says that in case of a lack of maintenance or development work, the urban body or development authority will be able to sell these reserved plots and get development work done.

The new building by-laws say that a tall building would not be allowed to be constructed on a small plot in the housing schemes and colonies of the cities.

After the implementation of these by-laws, neither a high-rise building can be constructed on small plots in housing schemes and colonies of cities, nor will the builder be able to build extra flats than prescribed under the policy.

At the same time, flats will not be allowed to be built on plots smaller than 500 square metre. According to the draft policy, only eight-storey buildings can be built on plots of more than five hundred to 750 square metre area.

Under the new rules, a corridor of six meters will have to be left for the fire brigade vehicles in high-rise buildings more than 15 meters high to easily enter and cover up the whole building.

At the same time, the construction of green buildings or eco-friendly buildings is being made mandatory on plots of more than 2500 square meters in cities. For environmental protection, a part of the greenery will have to be left.

Apart from this, in group housing, multi-residential units, now space for one car parking will have to be left for every unit. Even if the area is less than the prescribed area.

Atmaram Gupta, chairman of Jaipur’s ARG Group, said, “Right now, we are studying the draft by-laws. Indeed, high-rise buildings should not be built on small plots, they cause a lot of problems. People buy such flats because they are cheap and then face many issues. No facilities are provided to the buyers by the builders. So, let builders study it in detail first and then give suggestions.”

A small plot owner, on condition of not to be named, said, “We know what will be the fate of the new by-laws. The civic officials and the builders will together find a way around. Initially, there will be strictness for a few days, then work will start as before. This has been happening for the last three decades, by-laws have been changed many times, but illegal construction has not stopped.”