Tough stance: Patna Municipal Corporation

Patna Municipal Corporation is keeping an eye on buildings in the city, using hi-tech tools to prevent illegal construction.

The civic body has started using global positioning system-enabled digital survey of all buildings — completed or under construction — for which maps and plans were approved by empanelled architects in the past few years.

It has also temporarily stopped approving planning reports of new buildings, following a high court directive to keep tabs on construction in violation of approved maps.

The high court issued the order on May 10.

The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is preparing a ward-wise list of all constructions under its jurisdiction. Executive officers of different circles can stop construction work, if builders or property owners do not provide documents for preparing this list.

It would not provide sewerage, drainage and water connections to buildings that do not have completion certificates. The civic body executive officers would also coordinate with Patna Electric Supply Undertaking to ensure that electricity connection is not given to such houses.

Construction activities in areas like Digha, Mainpura and Kurji, which do not come under the PMC jurisdiction, would be monitored by the executive officer of the nearby civic body circle.

PMC commissioner Kuldip Narayan told The Telegraph: “New apartments more than 11m high would not be allowed to be constructed on roads less than 20-foot wide. Also, no commercial and mixed purpose buildings can be constructed on land earmarked for residential use. If any such construction is going on at present, it would be stopped. Ongoing construction in violation of such norms would be stopped and the property owners could be penalised.”

Outlining the property survey that the civic body has undertaken, Narayan said: “In order to keep a tab we are doing a survey of all buildings, for which the maps have been passed by the empanelled architects during the past four years. Sanitary inspectors and revenue collectors would prepare lists of under construction buildings in all the wards. Our target is to complete the survey in the next 15 days.”

New planning reports would not be approved till the civic body uploads the scanned images of all building plans and the planning reports approved by the empanelled architects in the past three years on the PMC website.