KMC to levy development fees on houses on kaccha roads

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has introduced a new rule making it mandatory for home-builders along kaccha roads and ‘common passages’ to pay a one-time development fee while seeking building plan approval.

The move aims to overcome legal hurdles in extending civic amenities to such areas and to generate funds for infrastructure.

According to a KMC notification, the fee has been fixed on a graded scale: Rs 5 per sq ft for plots up to one cottah, Rs 8 per sq ft for plots between one and three cottahs, and Rs 10 per sq ft for plots larger than three cottahs. The charge is applicable once, at the time of sanctioning the building plan.

KMC officials are of the opinion that while the rule applies across the city, it will have maximum impact in the extended areas—such as Jadavpur, Kasba, Garfa, Mukundapur, EM Bypass-adjacent zones, Behala, Thakurpukur, Garia and Joka—where unrecorded roads and passages are common. In contrast, wards 1 to 100, part of the core KMC area for decades, face little such problems.

The difficulty stems from the city’s expansion. Jadavpur, Behala and other southern belts were merged with KMC in 1985, while Thakurpukur and Joka were added only in 2015. In many such localities, houses sprang up beside informal passages carved out of subdivided plots or filled-up waterbodies. Residents frequently petitioned the corporation for paved roads, drainage, drinking water and streetlights, but absence of such passages in civic records led to legal complications.

“So far, KMC has often built roads and drains in these areas in the interest of residents, and later regularised them in records. But the cost burden was huge,” an official said. “The development fee will help us fund such services upfront,” he added.

Officials said many landowners already donate strips for roads. From now, payment of the fee along with such donation will be compulsory. KMC claims the initiative will finally bring long-awaited light, water, drainage and pucca roads to neglected corners of the city.