The proposal to relax minimum area norms for developing residential colonies was today approved by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The approval is now being sent for issuing a gazette notification.
Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Department, S S Sandhu, declared that the decision was taken in view of the rising prices of land and unabated mushrooming of illegal colonies in the state. The decision will not only encourage development of approved residential colonies in the state, but will prove a break-through for the unauthorised colonies.
The minimum area required to set up a colony in high potential zones, including Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar, and medium potential zone, including Patiala, would be 10 acres. Also, the minimum area requirement for the development of an authorised residential colony in the rest of Punjab would be five acres. Sandhu said the area outside the municipal limits of cities falling in either high or medium potential zones, and within the master plan all over the state, were available to promoters for the development of such colonies. Similarly, the minimum area requirement for group housing projects in the these cities or zones, and anywhere in the state would be two acres.
Section 5, rule 13 of the Punjab Apartment & Property Regulation Act, 1995, provides for grant of licence to a person or promoter who desires to develop a land into a colony. Earlier, the minimum area requirement for getting a licence for the development of a residential colony under the Act was 25 acres in high and medium potential zones. However, in low potential zones, the land requirement was 10 acres. Also, group housing projects all over the state qualified for licence against five acres of land.
