BANGALORE: While many residents of BDA areas have heaved a sigh of relief after the High Court passed an interim order against the use of residential buildings for commercial purposes, many builders are spending days in fear. Although the High Court specified that existing commercial establishments would not come under this order if they are permitted, the future of many projects in the pipeline will be in limbo.
For, the Citizens’ Action Forum, filed a petition questioning the legality of the Revised Master Plan- 2015, and the order has justified their initial plea.
The areas specified in the order included areas Malleswaram, Vasanthnagar, Jayanagar, Vijayanagar, V V Puram, Rajajinagar, R T Nagar and Richmond Town.
“There are many projects coming up in these areas. In areas like Malleswaram and Jayanagar, there is 50:50 share of residential and commercial projects. There are many builders who have completed only half the project, because of lack of investment. They are not aware of nuances of the order,”said Hari, a real estate agent.
Many agencies too have received frantic calls in the last 48 hours regarding the said order. “We had started our project in South Bangalore two years ago. We have got all the permissions, but there were many issues that cropped up in the last two years with the Corporation bodies. We were initially not aware of this order, but those people who bought the respective shops in our under-construction complexes questioned us whether this would have an impact on them. We are looking into all the details,” said a realtor.
Meanwhile, the BDA has failed to respond to the questions relating to the interim order. “This is an interim order and we do not want to comment on this,” a BDA official maintained. However, many resident welfare organisations from BDA layouts have voiced their concerns regarding the increasing commercialisation.
“If there is a fear amongst any realtor, then they would have bent some rules somewhere. Our application merely highlighted that the RMP - 2015 allows rampant commercialisation of residential areas. Every residential area requires minimal commercial activity. We had further highlighted that even the state government had doubted the credibility and implementation of RMP-2015,” said Vijay Menon, member, Citizens’ Action Forum.