Unplanned construction goes on in seismic Kangra

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, February 10

Despite the fact that the Dhauladhar range falls under the earthquake zone-V, unplanned construction of hotels, shopping complexes, houses and other activities has become the order of the day. It seems that no agencies exist here to streamline the system.

A senior officer of the Town and Country Planning said in Palampur, four-storey building plus one, subject to floor area ratio (FRA), with a height of 21 metres were permitted. Likewise in Dharamsala, the construction zones had been divided into three categories; core areas, restricted areas and other areas. In core areas, only two-storey residential buildings were allowed, in restricted areas three stories plus one structures were allowed while in other areas, four plus one-storey buildings were permitted.

But in many areas of the district, several buildings have come up in violations of the norms laid down by the department. Even today, many illegal buildings are either under construction or half completed.

Aman Kumar, local Town and Planning officer, said the department had been keeping regular checks on illegal buildings and in many cases, they had issued notices for violation. He said, however, there was a provision to make these constructions regularised by paying a compounding fee. In such cases, illegal buildings were regularised by charging a compounding fee.

However, most of the rules of the department are confined to official files. In reality, the agencies dealing with the development and planning of towns not in Kangra district but in entire state had failed to streamline the system because of the fact that rules laid down by the state government had not been implemented in its letter and spirit. Several areas adjoining Palampur, Baijnath, Bir, Kangra, Gaggal and Dharamsala and McLeodganj had turned into huge concrete jungles.

After the 2001 earthquake, the state government took serious measures to regulate the construction activities and also brought all important towns of Kangra district within the purview of the Town and Country Planning Act.

However, all efforts remained confined to paper only and in the past 10 years, most towns had witnessed unplanned construction in the absence of proper planning.