Ramanand Singh, a former government employee, decided to sell his house on 2.5 cottahs at Sri Krishna Nagar after he made up his mind to settle down in Delhi with his son. Several buyers approached him. A builder offered him Rs 4 crore and bought the plot with the house.

Bank employee Bharat Kumar is in a dilemma. Ten years ago, he purchased a land at Jagdeo Path at a throwaway price. Now, builders are offering him Rs 40 lakh for his plot. He is indecisive on whether to sell off his land or buy more time.

Small plots for tall apartments are in demand following the realty boom in the state capital. Flouting the floor area ratio (FAR), builders are developing cash-rich projects on them at the expense of buyers’ facilities.

To squeeze in more flats in less area, builders often exceed the FAR, which should be between two and three. Worse even, they do not leave enough space for parking lots or greenery.

FAR is the ratio between the land size and the total floor area of a building. Vijay Kumar, the director of the urban planning department of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), said: “In most parts of the city, the permissible FAR is 2.5. In some parts, it is two or three.”

If FAR of a given area is 2.5, the maximum surface area of a multi-storeyed building on a plot of 1,000sqm can be 2,500sqm.

Sources said builders are flouting the FAR in several new projects because of laxity in supervision on the part of the civic body authorities. A builder, on the condition of anonymity, said: “If we stick to the FAR, our profit margin comes down drastically. We will end up building fewer flats on a given area if we strictly follow the norm. So, we exceed the limit a bit at times.”

Besides flouting the building norms, builders are allegedly minting money by denying facilities to buyers of their flats.

“Lack of parking space, fire safety arrangements, shrinking setback area (the area between two buildings) and the absence of proper arrangements for sewerage disposal are common. People are not getting the kind of facilities they are promised after paying Rs 30 lakh to Rs 80 lakh for flats in upscale locations of the city. These things are bound to happen when apartment complexes are being constructed on plots as small as 2 cottahs or 3 cottahs,” Sarita Karn, a resident of an apartment on Boring Canal Road, said.

“In most cases, apartments are built on areas where the roads are too narrow and the setback area is too little. These apartments often lack basic amenities for which people prefer them over independent houses. But what is the way out? There is no one to tame the builders flouting the norms and going back on their promises,” Brajkishore Lal, a resident of an apartment in Rajendra Nagar area, said.

The situation has become so bad that Patna High Court recently pulled up PMC and the state urban development department. It asked them to keep a check on illegal apartments through a master plan.

“The existing master plan is serving the interest of the land mafia, who are constructing multi-storeyed apartments along narrow roads,” the high court observed in a judgment.

Kumar said PMC was aware of several cases of building norms violation and corrective measures would be taken.

“Around 400 constructions have been found violating the building laws. We will write to the vigilance department to take action against them,” he said.

Builders defended themselves saying going vertical was the only way out in the city that is expanding fast.

“Apartments in areas like Boring Road, Frazer Road and adjoining residential localities are booked before projects take off despite soaring prices,” Neelesh Kumar Sinha, the proprietor of Om Constructions, said.