SHWETA KAMAT
PANJIM: The Department of Town and Country Planning (TCP) and the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) are at loggerheads over the latter’s proposal to allow utilization of open spaces reserved in industrial estates for new industrial plots. With TCP expressing its reluctance to approve the proposal, the IDC, notwithstanding the TCP opinion, has introduced its own regulations – Goa-IDC Building Construction and Land Development Regulations, 2015 – to facilitate its demand.
The regulations approved by IDC during its Board meeting in December last year, aims to supersede the existing Goa (Regulations of Land Development and Building Construction) Act 2008, which does not allow conversion of open spaces into industrial plots. While as per current regulations 15 per cent of the area is reserved for open spaces, the IDC draft regulations have reduced the open space area to 10 per cent – thereby utilizing the balance for industrial plots.
With land constraints a major hurdle in the way of promoting Goa as an
industrial hub and bringing in the targeted Rs 25,000 crore investments, IDC wants to utilize open spaces in the industrial areas for development of plots. IDC has identified approximately 12 lakh sq mtrs of open space for the purpose.
“The TCP has received the proposal, wherein IDC wants that of the total 15 per cent of the open spaces reserved in industrial areas, half of it should be provided for converting the open spaces into plots. This includes even open spaces on the slopes,” sources told Herald.
As per Goa (Regulations of Land Development and Building Construction) Act 2008, of the 15 per cent reserved open spaces 7.5 per cent is to be developed as recreational open spaces and the other 7.5 per cent as general pool parking which is open to the sky and shall not be built upon.
“The TCP Board is however of the view that the open spaces cannot be utilized for plots but can be used for basic industrial purpose like setting up of garbage facilities, scrap yards, parking lots, etc,” sources said.
Ignoring TCP’s reservations, IDC has now proposed its own regulations, which has reduced the open space area in the industrial estate from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, wherein 5 per cent will be left open and other 5 per cent used for general utility. “They have reduced open spaces by 5 per cent so that the same can be utilized for development of industrial plots,” sources in TCP who have sent the relevant documents, added.
As part of development parameters, the regulations state that the maximum plot/coverage shall be 60 per cent, which is also not supported by TCP, who claims that more than 50 per cent cannot be granted in industrial areas.
It’s clear that this yet another instance when the Town and Country Planning Department and the TCP Act has been bypassed. Clearly the Parsekar government works on the principle of “when you can’t bend rules which prevent land grab, make new ones.”
