The Maharashtra government has issued a fresh set of guidelines for star-category hotels and hospitals to streamline construction activities in hill stations, that have become rampant. The new rules, made applicable to Lonavala for a start, make it mandatory for hotels to construct a service floor, and hospitals to have space for treatment plants and other infrastructure under the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation. The rules will be extended to other tourist spots and hill stations soon, officials said.
The changes made to the Development Control Rules (DCR) make it mandatory to have a service floor of not more than 1.8 metres’ height to maintain facilities such as water supply, sewage disposal units and electricity stations under one roof. “This is to ensure construction activities for hotels are more coordinated, which is not the case in hill stations where it is more frequent and fast,” said an official of the State Urban Development Department.
The changes have been introduced keeping in mind ‘public interest’, and will be included as “new” regulations in the DCR. “In most of these hotels, facilities such as power and sewage plants are not coordinated and maintained. This leads developers to tinker with the structure and the floor space index,” an official said.
Lonavala is spread over 37 sq. km. and about 450 new building permissions are granted by the local corporation every year, severely burdening the existing infrastructure. The hill station is home to more than 10,000 registered properties.