Bhubaneswar, Dec. 9: The development authorities here have decided to demolish 195 apartment and high-rise buildings that have come up on government and private land without the approval of regulatory bodies.

Housing and urban development minister Puspendra Singh Deo, in a written reply to a question in the Assembly, said 583 apartment and high-rise buildings had come up in violation of the laws.

"The Bhubaneswar Development Authority has approached the court for demolition of these apartments. Many of these cases are under subjudice. However, the court has passed the order to demolish 195 apartment and high-rise buildings," Singh Deo told the Assembly.

He also said 339 out of those apartments had come up after 2009. However, sources said, the lack of adequate manpower and machinery has stalled the development authority's plans of carrying out the demolition work.

The Telegraph has, in its possession, the list of people who have built multi-storey structures on encroached government land and without the approval of regulatory bodies.

The Telegraph had also carried a detailed report on December 21, 2014, on how commercial and residential high-rise buildings have come up on government and private land. Significantly, these apartments were not demolished even after court orders in this regard.

The records available with the housing and urban development department show that the value estimate of 84 illegal apartments was Rs 902.92 crore. "If we estimate the value of all 195 high-rise buildings, its value will be more than Rs 2,500 crore," said a department official.

The Real Estate Developers' Association confirmed that the cost of these high-rise buildings would be close to the aforementioned figure.

"As influential people own these buildings, the government is delaying the demolition process. The development authority is only biding time by citing that the matter is subjudice. It is not interested in taking steps to demolish these buildings," said Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Sulochana Das.

Speaking about the delay in carrying out the demolition, development authority secretary Debraj Senapati said: "At the time of demolition, we have to take the help of the law enforcement agency. The lack of co-ordination sometimes has delayed the demolition process."

Senapati said an enforcement squad was there to look into the demolition and prevent unauthorised structures from coming up.

"The builders, who have violated regulations, continue to reap benefits through unauthorised structures because of lax enforcement of the demolition orders," said a government official.