Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday expanded the temporary ban on construction of buildings with approved plans to New Town and several municipal areas adjoining Calcutta.
He said all sanctioned building plans would be audited.
A similar ban on construction projects sanctioned during the Trinamool government's tenure within the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area was announced on Wednesday. The suspension will remain in force at least till July 31.
"Work on all under-construction buildings, except those related to emergency services, will remain suspended for four weeks in New Town, Rajarhat, Maheshtala, Budge Budge and Bishnupur rural area (near Joka), Sonarpur and Baruipur," Suvendu said in the Assembly. "All sanctioned plans will be audited," he added.
Suvendu made the announcement while delivering a statement on the roof collapse of an under-construction warehouse on Transport Depot Road in Garden Reach.
It was not immediately clear whether Thursday's ban would remain in force for four weeks from the date of the announcement or till July 31, as in the case of the KMC area.
A committee comprising several senior bureaucrats has been formed to conduct the audit.
Damodar Maity, a professor of civil engineering at IIT Kharagpur, will be a member of the committee. Representatives of Rites and Ircon, the railways' engineering and consultancy subsidiaries, will also be part of it.
The ban is likely to have a significant impact in New Town, where several large commercial projects are under construction. Scores of four- and five-storey buildings are also coming up in the fast-growing township.
A real estate boom is sweeping through Budge Budge, Maheshtala, Pujali, Bishnupur, Sonarpur and Baruipur on Calcutta's southern fringes.
The expansion of the Metro network is expected to make travel between Calcutta and these areas easier in the coming years, attracting developers.
Property prices in Calcutta have reached a level at which many who work in the city can no longer afford homes there.
Many are opting for apartment complexes in neighbouring municipal areas.
"If one travels towards Bibirhat from Joka, rows of new and upcoming apartment complexes can be seen. A decade ago, these neighbourhoods did not have so many apartment buildings," said a businessman working in the area.
On Wednesday, Suvendu had also said the municipal affairs department could impose a similar construction ban in areas under the Bidhannagar and Howrah municipal corporations.
