CHB committee in favour of lifts, other relaxations in its dwelling units
Allowing internal changes within a house, lifts in multi-storey apartments, additional area coverage and more flexibility in façade of independent houses are some of the relaxations in the offering for more than 65,000 Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) residential units
Allowing internal changes within a house, lifts in multi-storey apartments, additional area coverage and more flexibility in façade of independent houses are some of the relaxations in the offering for more than 65,000 Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) residential units.
The CHB committee, set up to examine requests for further need-based changes in its residential units, concluded its proceedings on Tuesday and is expected to submit its report to the CHB board of directors within this week.
The CHB board, which is headed by UT adviser, will take the final call on the committee’s recommendations.
The committee was constituted in September last year. In addition to the technical experts, the committee also has three non-official board members.
Hitesh Puri, one of the non-official board members, said, “The committee has favoured allowing changes inside the houses if the changes are not made to the load-bearing walls. Also, more coverage area for a category of houses (depending on the size/area of the unit) will also be allowed.”
In the multi-storey apartment buildings of the CHB, the conditions for having a lift will be relaxed.
“Though the CHB had earlier allowed lifts in its multi-storey buildings, these had remained on paper. Approval of all the allottees in a building was required for its installation. Now, this condition is likely to be withdrawn,” said Puri.
The demand for lifts has been a long-pending one for meeting emergency needs, making buildings senior-citizen friendly and greater convenience of the residents.
In independent houses, minor changes in the façade of the building, like use of tiles on the surface, are likely to be allowed.
Board to take call on one-time settlement
The committee has examined only the technical aspects of need-based changes, requirements in CHB houses.
On the demand for one-time settlement for building violations and misuse of premises, the committee hasn’t made any recommendations.
“But it has agreed to include the recommendations of the non-official members of the board in its report to be submitted. We have recommended that a one-time settlement policy should be introduced which allows for regularisation of building violations that don’t impact the safety of the buildings and which are not encroaching on public land,” said Puri.
Allottees have been demanding a one-time policy on the lines of Delhi model. More than 65,000 houses and more than 4.5 lakh people are affected by the need-based changes regulations.
“The relaxations that the committee will recommend are likely to benefit 20 to 25% of the allottees. A one-time settlement policy as recommended by the non-official board members will benefit more than 90% of the allottees,” said Puri.