On 22nd June a notification was issued to the effect that residential land in Salt Lake would be allowed on payment of fees. So far, the UD Department has issued on request about 70 application sets. These are in various stages of processing. Further, about 49 legal notices have been served on reported cases of illegal transfers/ possession. The momentum is picking up, it seems.
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Here is a clipping from today's Bengal Post:
And here is a clipping from today's Sakalbela:
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Here is a link to Hindu Business Line:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/travel/article3764211.ece
and a link to India education Diary :
http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Shownews.asp?newsid=14407
Sir,
ReplyDeleteThe fact that so many applications have been received clearly indicates that this change was very much needed. I am sure apart from the monetary aspect there would be other more important reasons for landholders in Salt Lake wanting to transfer the land. In fact in your post informing us of the first application you had mentioned that the aged couple wanted to move and stay with their children in another city. Once the transfer is done, they can have their life long earnings with them and can be also with their near and dear ones. A simple move by the Government is bringing about such a good social impact! Just hope that building another floor is also allowed by the Government. Let’s keep fingers crossed.
Tanvir
Fantastic point Tanvir. Beside that this will also turn out to be a generous way of making the cash strapped govt and municipality slightly richer so that there will be funds for development activities.
ReplyDeleteAs you rightly told, we should not only allow another floor but also redevelopment in Salt Lake and other municipalities. North Kolkata alone has thousands of dilapidated buildings and illegal constructions.
Environment friendly buildings and hospitals is really a pioneering step in our country. Great work Mr. Sen.
Simultaneously serving notices to illegal transfers and encroachments will also increase compliance.
Adding an extra floor amounts to increasing FAR As the seminar on Densification of Cities showed, unplanned increase in FAR will lead to traffic congestion,parking problems, water/ sanitation problems, pressure on common facilities like markets, schools and hospitals, and so on. Salt lake roads, especially in Sector I, are getting choked. Water is a problem in many pockets. Solid waste disposal site in Mollar Bhery is a sub-optimal solution and that too for a limited period of time. ...The whole issue would indeed need a very very careful analysis. But for green / new /developing towns, the planned intervention for denser urban spaces is a possibility
ReplyDeleteMr. Sen, I feel there can be solutions for older areas as well. Otherwise how is Bombay dealing with such issues? I know there are problems there but at least BMC is giving a try and we can hope that after a few glitches the infrastructure will be upgraded. Otherwise, we can never have stuffs like slum redevelopment in Bombay . We need to look at the problems faced by BMC and how they are dealing with it.
DeleteMost people associate an increase in FSI with an increase in density. It is true that an increase in FSI applied to only a few individual plots would result in a higher density on the affected plots, and as a consequence in a further decrease in infrastructure standards . However, what I am advocating here is very different from the piecemeal and ad hoc approach linked with the trading of TDR. I am advocating a well planned city wide adjustment of the current FSI to allow Kolkata’s FSI to reach a level comparable to the best practice in other large cities of the world. The infrastructure will have to be redesigned and rebuilt in the areas where a large FSI increase is projected. The new infrastructure could be financed by an impact fee imposed on developers at the time of reconstruction. In this manner the additional infrastructure cost will be borne entirely by those benefiting directly from an increased FSI but will not affect buildings which are not suitable or not ready for redevelopment.
I think we can go ahead with the FSI increases in many designated area within the municipal limits....isnt it?
DeleteThe total floor space area will double over 10 years (as was done in Shanghai) the municipality improve the infrastructure; the consumption of floor space increases for poor and rich alike; nobody has to leave the city or is pushed on the sidewalk. Eventually, sidewalk and slum dwellers join the main stream and are moved into formal housing.
Link of an old piece of news about FSI increase in Mumbai:
http://www.mumbaipropertyexchange.com/news/NewsDetail.aspx?id=759
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