Puducherry government notifies one-time regularisation scheme for unauthorised structures

The scheme allows owners of unauthorised buildings and those constructed in deviation of the sanctioned plan to register with Town and Country Planning Department by paying a non-refundable application fee of ₹5,000 for residential buildings and ₹10,000 for other structures. 

Also, a scrutiny fee at the rate of ₹20 per square metre for residential buildings and ₹50 per square metre for applications other than residential buildings has to be paid in the name of the Member Secretary of the concerned Planning Authority of the Union Territory, the notification said. 

The application should have details, such as floor plans, elevations, and sections of the buildings constructed, the site plan, building plan, and wherever applicable, the service and parking plans as provided in the Puducherry Building Byelaws and Zoning Regulations and specifications.

The Planning Authority Committee before allowing the owner to pay the fine would examine the application to ascertain whether minimum safety and security provisions in the buildings have been provided, such as clearance and overhead electric lines, availability of minimum width of road, parking facilities, facilities for persons with disabilities, fire escape staircase, lift, provisions for waste disposal, solar-assisted water heating and lighting systems and other provisions in the building bye-laws holding serious safety and security concerns, the notification said.

While the government buildings were exempted from payment of the one-time fee, owners of residential buildings would have to pay ₹500 per square metre and mixed use buildings/special buildings have to remit ₹750 per square metre as regularisation charges. The fee for multi-storey buildings has been fixed at ₹1,000 per square metre, the notification said.

According to a senior official, there are thousands of unauthorised structures and those constructed by violating the approved plan. The entire fee collected as a one-time charge would be parked in a corpus fund and would be used for infrastructure development in the Union Territory, he said.

The concerned planning authority would serve notice to all the owners of unauthorised buildings or buildings with deviations from the approved plan within a period of six months from the notification of the scheme. The scheme has been notified on July 16, the official said.