The Environment Ministry's latest guidelines on height restrictions for high-rise buildings based on road width have irked builders in Kerala.
The new guidelines of the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests prescribe 15-30 m road access for buildings of heights ranging from 15 to 60 m. Anything above 60 m, the minimum road width shall be 30 m-plus. It also stipulates that a fire station should be located within 2 km. This apparently means that the width of the road and the distance from the nearest fire stations would be the deciding factors for getting the environmental clearance for high-rises.
According to the guidelines, all necessary fire-fighting equipment should also be in place before buildings taller than 15 m are ready for occupation.
tall buildings ‘impossible'
Commenting on these new stipulations, Mr Abdul Azeez, Chairman, Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India, Kerala, said that these guidelines made it impossible for any high-rises to come up in the State, which has traditionally stuck to narrow roads despite building rules being amended periodically.
He pointed out that these guidelines might be good for some cities, but could not be applied to Kerala because of a severe land scarcity here. Pressure on land will go up tremendously if such guidelines were imposed here, he said.
Since almost all roads in major cities in the State are of less than five m, such restrictions based on road width will adversely affect the State's development at large, he added.
“This has also led to a situation wherein projects can be constructed only in state/national highways that meet the road width criteria. This would result in increase in project cost as the land prices in proximity to such wide roads are exorbitantly high.”
Impractical conditions
It will become all the worse when this proposal is made applicable for obtaining fire no-objection certificates. Even a five-story building needs a road width of 15 m to comply with this impractical condition as far as Kerala is concerned, he said.
Besides, the stipulation that buildings that are 30 to 45 m tall should be within 2 km of a fire station or a 10-minute drive from the station is unrealistic. “This almost amounts to suggesting that the developer himself will have to put up a fire station first before venturing into any viable project,” he said.
He is of the view that the guidelines have to be accepted and approved by the State Government before the Centre makes it mandatory.
Mr L. Gopakumar, Chairperson, Indian Institute of Architects, Kochi Centre, alleged that the State Government has not taken any steps to address the concern of builders on the present guidelines of the Environment Ministry. “The demand for infrastructure and built up space is on the increase in Kerala. However, the availability of land is the biggest challenge. Leaving alone the roads, waterways, forest, paddy fields and wet lands, not even 10 per cent of the land is not available for construction.”