A staggering 1,500 proposals of building construction, submitted for clearance in February and March, are on hold as the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) is yet to decide on the building rules that govern them.

The CMC Building Rules (Amendment), 1999, came into force on April 1, but an ongoing litigation by city architects at Calcutta High Court, questioning the validity of the new rules, has forced the CMC?s building department to suspend sanctioning of construction proposals for the time being.

Thanks to the impasse, the civic body risks losing around Rs 8 crore by not sanctioning the 1,500 projects.

Starting the second week of February, there was a scramble among promoters and plot-owners for submitting the construction proposals to avail of the benefit of more floor area under the old rules.

According to the new rules, the mandatory open space in front of a building has been increased from four feet to six feet.

Besides, some more restrictions have been imposed on the height of a building if the plot is located on a narrow road.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee had in March directed the building department not to accept proposals under the old rule, in view of the enforcement of the new building rules from April.

Subsequently, some architects moved the high court, challenging the validity of several provisions contained in the new building rules.

The architects? long-standing demand has been that civil engineers should not be allowed to prepare a building plan, irrespective of the height of the structure and that their work should be restricted to overseeing the structural part of construction only.

These demands, apparently, were ignored at the time of gazette notification of the new rules. This compelled the architects to move court.

?The court may suspend the new building rules till the disposal of this case,? said deputy chief law officer Shaktibrata Ghosh on Tuesday.

So now, the CMC is neither in a position to accord sanction under the CMC Building Rules, 1990, nor can call for resubmission of proposals in accordance with the new rules.