Bhubaneswar, May 30: The development authority is getting ready to carry out demolition exercises in various parts of the city to pull down portions of apartments and buildings that have deviated from the original building plan or have encroached on government land.

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has drawn up a list of 601 such structures that either encroaches on government land or have illegally converted low-rise buildings into high-rise structures.

"We have provided approval to 1,442 apartments and 169 multi-storey buildings in the city so far out of which 601 are illegal. We have filed cases against these building under Odisha Development Authority Act and 196 such cases were decided in our favour," said an official of the development authority.

He said a joint team of the development authority, general administration department, civic body and the police would demolish those 196 structures once the requisition was made by the authority concerned.

"The government has already formed a central eviction team, which has the authority to carry out such demolition. We will do our job," said the official.

The joint eviction team had demolished some illegal structures in Khandagiri last week. During that drive, the team had pulled down a major portion of a multi-storey building and freed about 900sqft land.

"The general administration department had identified the violator and issued the demolition order," said BDA liaison officer Subhransu Sekhar Mohanty. "We carried out the drive peacefully and fenced the area."

Besides apartments and multi-storey buildings, the development authority is also receiving complaints from residents about illegal constructions.

"We receive complaints on a daily basis about such violations. We inspect these sites and then decide if it needs to be pulled down," said another officer of the development authority.