City’s draft master plan-2040 to head to council for discussion

Thiruvananthapuram: The department of town and country planning which has completed work on the draft GIS-based master plan-2040 of Thiruvananthapuram city has initiated preliminary steps to take the draft master plan for the approval of corporation council. A meeting in this regard was held last week. The officials held a presentation to introduce the new councillors and members of the town planning committee to various components of the master plan. The department had forwarded the draft of the master plan to state mission management unit in March. It was later submitted to the Centre.
The key step of getting the new plan approved by the council with changes and recommendations has kicked off. The councillors have been given a pro forma to fill in their inputs which shall form a part of discussion when the draft master plan comes up for council discussion.
Lack of clarity in provisions regarding modifications of interim development order has made it imperative for the corporation to finalize a uniform master plan for the city. The constructions in wards outside the purview of sanctioned master plan 1971 are being done using interim development order (IDO). The public had raised concerns regarding certain provisions in IDO especially with regard to constructions in green zones. During the tenure of the previous council, the town planning standing committee presented a set of modifications in IDO to ease the processing of building permits. The modifications could not be passed in the council.
After the new council came to power, the town and country planning had pitched the need to get the modifications passed. However, the Kerala Town and Country Planning Ordinance, 2021 was notified in February 2021 and this did not contain any clause to modify the IDO. This led to a question whether IDO can be modified or not. The officials with regional town planning had sent a letter to the chief town planner (planning) seeking clarity on the matter, but a reply is yet to be received.
As per the changes proposed in IDO, private properties mistakenly included in areas for public and semi-public use or as paddy land can be verified using revenue records and conversion is possible with the concurrence of town planner.
The dimension of commercial constructions in residential zones was proposed to be revised depending up access of road. For road width of 8m, area of commercial constructions was proposed to be increased from 200 to 500 sqm. The allowable area was proposed to be increased from 500 to 750 sqm for commercial constructions if road width is 12m.
The provision of having 50% coverage for residential buildings up to 300 sqm in dry agricultural zones was taken away in the modification and in green to planned coverage zones, the coverage limit fixed at 33.3% was proposed to be done away with. The building rules will determine coverage in these areas, the modification note said.