The Town and Country Planning (TCP) directive dated August 8, 2014 mandating all authorities not to grant development permissions or construction licences unless the requisite road infrastructure is physically available on site, has come to haunt real estate developers and planners in Margao.
Sources said that inspections of the site plan of many applications for development permissions – an exercise carried out before a PDA meeting – have revealed that many construction projects may fail to pass the test with the existing road width falling short of the TCP and ODP guidelines and may be liable for rejection.
PDA member and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said the TCP order will have huge implications for the industry and that not a single plan will be approved for development.
Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, also a PDA member, suggested that the government should offer incentives to parties by way of increased FAR so that they leave out their property to get the exact road width.
In a town where real estate projects built on “proposed” roads has been a norm rather than an exception over the years, the TCP order is expected to have a huge fall out on real estate development.
It is an open secret that even multi-dwelling residential projects have taken shape or are underway in some parts of the commercial capital on “proposed 8-metre roads” when the existing road infrastructure has a width of less than 4-5 metres. Again, the Margao’s Outline Development Plan (ODP) has earmarked certain areas in the city as commercial zones, even when the road width is nowhere beyond 5-6 metres.
SGPDA members wonder whether the PDA had taken cognizance of the government order dated August 8 when it had approved a host of development files at its meeting held on September 23 – more than a month after the government’s order came into force.
When Herald contacted, SGPDA Member Secretary Vinod Kumar, he said that the PDA would go by the government order dated August 8. “There are certain files which are expected to come up for extension or renewals. Let the Authority take a call on the matter,” he said, asserting that not a single file has been approved by the PDA at its meeting held on September 29 in violation of the order.
The TCP order may find favour with citizens demanding better road infrastructure before high rise buildings take shape right in their backyard along the narrow roads. But, voices of disquiet have come to the fore in many quarters of the town.
