Highrises near Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 23: More than a year since the municipal council here passed a resolution to make no-objection certificates (NOC) mandatory for real estate developers, the civic authorities are yet to fully implement the provision.

Sources in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) said hundreds of applications regarding obtaining an NOC were still pending. “Most of the time, real estate developers apply for an NOC, but do not pursue the matter. Sometimes, the officials even fail to locate the buildings for which an NOC has been applied,” said a senior official of the corporation.

A survey by the corporation’s engineering wing had found that while there were 773 multi-storey structures in the city, only 196 of them had applied for an NOC. “It is surprising that most apartment builders have not even applied for an NOC,” said a senior BMC engineer.

On May 30 last year, the BMC council had passed a resolution to put up signboards in front of all multi-storey buildings that had not obtained an NOC. But, the civic authorities have not yet put up a single signboard.

On November 29 last year, the BMC council had taken a unanimous decision that real estate developers who had not applied for an NOC and had sold flats in the building, would have to deposit 30 per cent of their project cost to the civic body. But, that too is yet to be implemented.

According to the rules, builders need to obtain an NOC from the civic authorities before getting approval for a plan from the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The builders also need to deposit two per cent of the project cost for peripheral development.

But, the NOC has to be provided to a builder within one month from applying. If the BMC takes more than one month’s time in providing the NOC, the applicant may take it for granted that the NOC has been given to him by default.

This has helped the real estate developers to flout the norms.

“We have been raising the issue for a long time. But sadly, the civic authorities are yet to take any concrete action against the violators,” said councillor of ward No. 49 Amaresh Jena. He also said the process for obtaining an NOC should be expedited.

When people buy houses from builders who have not obtained an NOC from the BMC, they later complain about choked drains or lack of basic facilities. The mandatory NOC provision was supposed to put a check on such problems.

BMC commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev, however, said the corporation would expedite its process for obtaining the NOC.

“We have asked for another survey report to detect the violators. After that, action will be taken against the violators,” said Dev.