Bidhannagar: ‘No bank loans, electricity before authenticity verification of new buildings’

Kolkata: Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the banks and West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) not to sanction any loan and not to provide electricity connection to any new construction before verifying its authenticity of the building plan from the civic body.

This move comes after nearly 150 complaints were lodged against several unauthorised constructions in the past year. According to sources, most of these unauthorised constructions are found in the Rajarhat-Gopalpur area. In the past year, when banks sent several loan-related documents for verification about 20-25 per cent of constructions were found to be unauthorised.

The civic body has also found that the promoters or the flat owners have also obtained electricity connections in those unauthorised constructions. Sources informed that after the banks were asked to verify the building plans before disbursing the loans, the desired result was achieved in detecting unauthorised constructions.

The civic body officials are also trying to identify the unauthorised constructions where no persons are staying as the BMC might take stringent action against the illegal construction. According to officials, it becomes more difficult to act against the unauthorised constructions once people start residing there.