HC bans highrises on narrow roads

PATNA: Taking serious note of the flawed urban landscape, the Patna high court on Friday directed the state government and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to stop construction of more than 11-metre-high multistorey buildings on less than 20-feet-wide roads and 15-metre-high buildings on less than 40-feet-wide roads under the Patna municipal area.
A division bench comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Shivaji Pandey also expressed its displeasure over the commercial use of residential buildings. The judges said the principal secretary (urban development department), PMC commissioner and Patna DM would be answerable for any non-compliance with the court order.
The order was passed on a PIL filed by Narendra Mishra, challenging the PMC authorities concerned who allowed construction of a 16.4-metre-high multistorey building on the 11-feet-wide Raiji Ki Gali in East Boring Canal Road locality of the state capital.
The court passed a general order on the PIL for future construction of any multistorey building and pulled up the PMC authorities for allowing uncontrolled construction of such buildings in Patna town. "This would cause many civic problems," the judges said and asked the PMC how the architects were allowed to design plans for the multistorey buildings having height more than the prescribed norms.
Restraining any such construction in future, the division bench also sought details of the PMC hierarchy so that the court could fix the responsibilities of its staff and engineers for any error committed by them.
Petitioner's counsel Suresh Prasad Singh submitted that the authorities and engineers of the PMC had flouted the norms and the builder concerned even encroached a part of the adjacent space which falls under the Master Plan of Patna for construction of a 60-feet-wide road.
The court stayed further construction of the aforesaid multistorey building at Raiji ki Gali here.