Green approval must for big realty projects in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Developers of all big housing projects-covering 2 lakh square feet or more-in the state will now have to get a compulsory green nod before starting construction.

After taking clearance from the district administration, stating the nature of the land, project details and the outlying plan of the nature of construction, the builders will have to submit those papers to the state environment department as well for its approval. They will also need a separate Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) certificate, issued by the land revenue department. For land conversion certificate, developers can approach a district magistrate or a block land revenue official. The decision was taken on Monday by state environment minister Sovan Chatterjee at a department meeting, following which he told reporters he would not allow developers to bend rules and get away with penalties.

This is not all. Only after submitting these documents, developers will be given a provisional approval by the environment department to undertake constructions. Based on the provisional green approval, developers will have to submit a detailed plan of the project before the local civic bodies for their sanction. Before starting work, builders will also have to send a letter of commencement to environment officials, who will then visit the site for a spot survey. An NOC from the state environment department will be issued to the project concerned after examining all the documents.

Chatterjee said the move was taken to tighten the screw on some unscrupulous builders, after several anomalies were found in the environment department records. "I was shocked to see how a section of developers break rules with impunity and still remain untouched. Now, we will make it mandatory that all relevant papers have to be submitted before a developer can get even a provisional approval to approach a municipal body for building sanction," the minister said. A senior state environment department official pointed out that rampant filling of waterbodies prompted the minister to look into the anomalies and act against encroachment in future.