Bhubaneswar, July 30: The cap on the height and floors of high-rises in the capital has been lifted. Now, they can be more than 27 metres tall and have over 23 floors.

The state government today announced that buildings in the capital — be it a residential or a commercial complex — can go beyond the height of 27 metres. It also removed the floor cap to boost to the housing sector in the city. Housing and urban development minister Badri Narayan Patra made this announcement while replying to a question.

The skyline of Cuttack is also set to change with the Cuttack Development Authority planning to lift the cap on the height and floors of multi-storeyed buildings.

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) authorities said the height and the number of floors of buildings would be determined according to the floor area ratio, width of road, frontal open space and various other parameters. At present, the built-up area can be 1.5 times the actual area of the plot. If a plot has an area of 3,000 sqft, the total built-up area can be 4,500 square. The new rule means bigger the plot, higher can be the height of a building.

“Multi-storeyed buildings (with a height of 15 metres) would be allowed on plots measuring a minimum of 20,000 sqft and having 60 ft roads on either side. So far, BDA has given permission to build a 23-storeyed building,” BDA vice-chairman Deoranjan Singh Deo told The Telegraph, adding that the BDA has so far given its nod to 108 multi-storeyed buildings in the city.

BDA vice-chairman Deo said as per the revised rules 30 per cent of the area of an apartment has to be reserved for parking. Similarly, in commercial establishments, the total parking area should be 40 per cent of the area and for multi-storeyed buildings (15 floors and above) the total parking area should be 60 per cent of the total surface land.”

Deo said as per the common development plan prepared by the IIT, Kharagpur, there would be a shortage of nearly 4.5 lakh dwelling units by 2030. “In order to meet the housing requirements, we have no other way but to give permission to multi-storeyed complexes,” he said.

Welcoming the move, Suresh Bhoora, the managing director of a real estate group, said: “Multi-storeyed buildings will solve the housing problems to a great extent.”

“As the land price in Bhubaneswar has gone beyond the reach of masses, high–rise buildings will provide them with an option to buy a home at an affordable rate,” said Anup Mohapatra, the chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association.

H.N. Dash, a teacher of architecture in the College of Engineering and Technology, said the BDA should prepare zonal plans for the city before going ahead with its high-rise plans. “There should be zone-wise floor-area ratio. A proper zonal development plan can determine the actual population density of a particular area. Under no circumstance, high-rise buildings should be allowed in the original master plan area prepared in 1954,” he said. Dash also said that high-rise buildings should be built for commercial purposes and the BDA must strictly adhere to the fire safety norms.

(with inputs from Lalmohan Patnaik)