Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Drive against basement shops

RULES BROKEN: Parking space in basements of a commercial complex in Gulbarga have been occupied by shops and business establishments.

GULBARGA: Violation of building rules, particularly by commercial complexes in Gulbarga city, is set to end with officials of the Gulbarga City Corporation and the Gulbarga Urban Development Authority deciding to act.

Although construction of basements for shops or houses is prohibited in Gulbarga according to the master plan for the city approved by the Government, they were allowed to be constructed in commercial complexes to make parking space for vehicles.

While permitting construction of the buildings, the city corporation and the urban development authority gave clear instructions that no shops or houses should come up in the basements.

However, almost all such buildings in Gulbarga city and other cities and towns in the district have converted basements into shops, and even houses have come up in some of them.

The city corporation authorities attempted to end this violation by issuing notices to some of the commercial complexes in Gulbarga city last year, but before any action could be initiated the move was given up because of alleged pressure from the powerful lobby of builders.

However, things will change now with the Bidar Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta taking additional charge as Regional Commissioner of Gulbarga division.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Tuesday that Mr. Gupta’s first step after taking charge in July was to ask civic authorities to prepare a list of the commercial complexes that had violated provisions of the building permission . Of the more than 180 commercial complexes in Gulbarga city, none had followed the building rules.

Initially, Mr. Gupta chaired a meeting with owners of the commercial complex buildings and asked them to clear the basements and use them for parking failing which, he said, the authorities would demolish such shops.

Sources said the notices to complex owners would be issued in a day or two, and three days would be given to them to adhere to the directions of the notice.

The decision on widening of roads has been put on hold with officials browsing through old files to be sure if they existed prior to the 1972 revision of the city survey records.

A team of officials has been dispatched to Hyderabad to search for land record details of Gulbarga prior to 1956 in the Andhra Pradesh State Archives.

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