Kolkata realty projects are set to move through the approval process again as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s municipal building committee meets on Saturday for the first time in seven months to review 15 major residential developments. The projects are located in areas including Alipore Park Road, Southern Avenue, Ballygunge Circular Road, Baithakkhana Road, Diamond Harbour Road, Ballygunge Park and Nayabad.
The municipal building committee, or MBC, clears construction plans for large developments spread across more than 500 square metres or 7.5 cottah. It is also required to approve buildings taller than 15.5 metres, generally around the height of a ground-plus-four-storey structure, as well as all non-residential buildings. Smaller projects are approved by executive engineers in the respective KMC boroughs.
The committee’s resumption follows a prolonged interruption in its meetings. The MBC last met in February, before the Assembly elections were announced. Its meetings were later discontinued after the change in the city’s political administration and the dissolution of the elected KMC board. Realtors, architects and KMC officials told the Times of India that scores of applications accumulated during the period without regular committee meetings.
KMC officials said the reconstituted committee would introduce additional scrutiny during project reviews. Structural engineers will now be required to attend MBC meetings in person, while architects will make three-dimensional presentations of proposed projects. The presence of structural engineers was not required under the earlier practice, according to an official quoted by the Times of India.
The change follows questions surrounding the role of structural engineers after the collapse of an under-construction warehouse on Transport Depot Road in Taratala. Sixteen people were killed in that incident. The new committee includes members from railway subsidiaries IRCON and RITES, engineers from the state Public Works Department and the Central Public Works Department, along with representatives from the fire services, police and KMC.
The 15 projects scheduled for review are all residential developments and are expected to be up to 10 storeys, according to an official of the realtors’ body Credai. The official said the real estate sector expected another MBC meeting to consider projects rising to 20-22 storeys, though no date for such a meeting was provided in the report.
The restart has implications beyond individual construction applications. Large residential projects generate substantial building plan sanction fees for KMC, with an official saying the fees can run into crores. For developers and architects, the meeting provides a route for applications that had remained pending during the seven-month gap. The immediate review, however, covers only the 15 residential projects listed for the meeting.
The committee is scheduled to examine the projects on Saturday, with structural engineers and architects expected to participate under the revised review process.
