Response of owners to pull down old buildings & make way for new ones grows in popularity

Kolkata: The response has been overwhelming from owners who have given their consent to pull down the old buildings in order to make room for new ones.

In two of the recently held Municipal Building Committees (MBC) meetings, the civic authorities, representatives of Kolkata Police and representatives of the architects discussed the plans for the new buildings that will come up by pulling down the old ones and clearing them out. Over 75 plans have been cleared so far.

The state government passed an Act in 2017 which stated that owners of old structures in consultation with the tenants can apply to the KMC to pull down the structures to erect new ones. The tenants will be rehabilitated in the new houses and the owners will get additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR) which they can utilise in the new building structures.

It may be mentioned that the KMC has proposed to impose hefty fines and penal action against the owners of old buildings who will not repair them. Earlier, the civic authorities had requested the owners of structures that are more than 50 years old to get the health of their properties checked up by an empanelled structural engineer. Billboards were put up at important intersections but the response of the owners was lukewarm.

Senior civic officials welcomed the move by the owners of old buildings who feel that they should pull down the old structures to make room for new ones after rehabilitation of the tenants.

The officials said the problems lied with the tenanted houses. Many of the tenants who are paying Rs 100 per month refuse to vacate as the space occupied by them in the new premises will be less than what they are enjoying currently.

Secondly, there are many old houses that are situated on the lanes and bylanes and it will be difficult for the KMC to sanction plans as the width of the road is narrow. Thirdly, there are hundreds of premises where the civic authorities have failed to trace the owners. The buildings have not been maintained for the past 50 years and the tenants do not pay any rent in the absence of the owner.

The officials said these important issues needed to be addressed since if the old buildings are not pulled down, they could collapse at any moment causing life threat.