Panel to approve building plans

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will soon have in place a panel of architects to verify and approve individual building plans on behalf of the civic body for residents wanting to build private houses.

Chief executive officer of the civic body Vinay Kumar Choubey said RMC had already issued a tender, asking city architects to enrol themselves in the panel and take up responsibility as envisaged by the new municipal act.

"On Saturday, we began the exercise of getting architects on board the panel. A tender was issued and we are sure we will get architects interested in the new task," Choubey told The Telegraph.

The new law ' Jharkhand Municipality Act 2011 ' eased the process of building plan approval for individuals wanting to construct homes. Those building small and medium houses now need not go to the civic body to get their plans approved. The new rule authorises private but empanelled architects to verify and approve individual building plans up to a size of 500sqmt. Even interested junior civil engineers have been authorised by the new act to play this role.

"We will be getting names of interested architects in the next 15 days. Following this, the panel would be formed," Choubey said.

According to the act, after approving an individual building plan, the empanelled architect has to submit the details to the chief executive officer of the civic body within 15 days from the date of approval. The architect would have to approve the plans as per norms set by the civic body.

Earlier, the task of verifying and approving building plans was the responsibility of Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA). Almost a year ago, the task was handed over to RMC, which can approve building plans in areas under its jurisdiction. The RRDA has the power to approve maps for buildings outside the civic body area.

"So far, we have approved nearly 500 plans. If everything including ownership of land and proposed layout is alright, it takes only around 20-25 days to verify the spot and approve the plan," said Gajanan Ram, the RMC town planner. Around 150 applications are lying for the consideration of the civic body.

The civic body has created a town planning cell at its office, engaging one town planner, two assistant engineers and four junior engineers. These men collectively verify a building plan and either approve it or ask the applicant to come up with a modified version.

"As a panel of architects is yet to be created, the civic body is now approving building plans of individual houses as well as apartments and commercial buildings. Once the architect panel is formed, the civic body will approve apartments and commercial building plans and those individual building plans whose area exceeds 500sqmt," Ram clarified.

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Panel to approve building plans