The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Rainwater harvesting must in new buildings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 05, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rainwater harvesting must in new buildings

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 4. Rainwater harvesting and planting of trees will be compulsory in all new buildings in the city from Saturday (June 5).

This follows amendments made to the building by-laws by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and gazetted by the State Government on March 4. All construction plans submitted to the BMP for sanction from June 5 will have to comply with the new rules.

The new rules will be released at the World Environment Day function to be organised by the BMP on Saturday.

The civic body had released the draft by-laws in February last year. Though the final notification on the revised by-laws was expected to come through in May last year, it was delayed by 10 months.

The other amendments include safety measures against earthquakes, solar water heating, facilities for the differently abled and parking for visitors' vehicles in high rise buildings.

The zoning regulations of the revised Comprehensive Development Plan 1995 for the Metropolitan area have been adopted in full in the new rules. To ensure that buildings were earthquake-resistant, provisions have been made for norms as prescribed under the National Building Code. This is for buildings with ground plus four upper floors and above or buildings with a height of 15 metres and above.

Provision of solar water heaters for different categories of buildings in accordance with the usage had been made compulsory.

All public and semi-public buildings covering an area of 300 sq metres and above are to be designed and constructed to provide barrier-free environment to differently-abled persons.

According to the new rules, it has been made mandatory for every building with a plinth area exceeding 100 sq metres and built on a site measuring 200 sq metres (for "50 by 40" sites and above) to have one or more rainwater harvesting structures. A penalty of Rs. 1,000 a year would be levied on every 100 sq metres of built-up area if the owner violated the rule.

Provision of alternative means of parking such as terrace parking, multistage parking and parking silos have been made mandatory in high rise buildings.

This is subject to the production of No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the authorities concerned. In such cases, a clear height of 3.60 metres in the basement floor has to be provided.

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