UP’s industrial authorities to adopt standard building bylaws

Lucknow: All industrial development authorities in Uttar Pradesh will have a standardized set of building bylaws and regulations.With focus on industrial development of the state, the need to evolve the same set of rules and guidelines for allowing construction activity is being felt at the govt level.Tasked with the responsibility of allocating land parcels to investors, the department of infrastructure and industrial development is carrying out works through eight different industrial development authorities involved with the process of aggregating and developing large land tracts across the state.However, the building bylaws framed by different authorities have a lot of variations, with some offering a floor area ratio (FAR) of 1.5 while others pushing for increased vertical development by allowing FAR up to 3.5. The floor area ratio plays a crucial role at the time of decision-making since it determines by how much proportion a land parcel could be exploited to create more usable space over a plot.Similarly, the ground coverage ratio, which determines how much space of the plot can be used for construction activity and how much needs to be left vacant, plays an important role for investors scouting for a land parcel.As the first step, UPEIDA, which is still at a nascent stage when it comes to awarding industrial land, decided this month to adopt the bylaws framed by Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA), abandoning the bylaws stipulated by UPSIDA.Officials at the expressways industrial authority said that the robust nature of bylaws framed by GNIDA promoted them to adopt it. "Some set of rules framed by UPSIDA have become obsolete and were conceptualized to promote plotted development, whereas the need today is to promote flatted development. We also noticed GNIDA does not have any provision to allow compounding or regularization of unauthorized construction," a senior officer in the authority said.As the matter escalated and caught the attention of senior govt officials, it was decided to rope in experts to evolve a basic framework to govern industrial growth across the state with the same yardstick. Principal secretary, infrastructure and industrial development department, Anil Kumar Sagar, said: "Invest UP has been asked to look into the building bylaws of different industrial authorities. A final call will be taken once homework is complete."On the lines of the housing department, which has framed the same set of basic frameworks to regulate construction activities taking place under the jurisdiction of 29 housing development authorities, the industrial development department is also expected to come out with a common code for the eight industrial authorities.A single online building approval system will also be created thereafter, on the lines of the one being used by the housing department, to approve the building plans being submitted to the industrial authorities.