Officials of the Local Planning Authority (LPA) razed 3.21 acres of unapproved layout in Ashok Nagar near Ukkadam-Selvapuram Bypass Road here early on Saturday morning. This was the first kind of action initiated against unapproved layouts by the LPA in the recent years.
The team headed by G Eswaran, Member secretary of LPA, and other officials razed the fences and name boards of the Gold Peacock Garden following an order from the Collector .
The owner, KM Stalin, a resident of Telungu Palayam and founder of Royal Estate, reportedly divided the site into 64 residential plots one year ago. Currently, there was only one building in the final stages of completion and few plots were sold out by the owner in the past few months, sources said.
Eswaran said, “The garden should be located only 90 metres away from nearby burial ground and it should be located 15 metres away from the lake. However, during inspection, we found that the owner violated these two norms.” Besides, the promoter also did not get a no-objection certificate from the concerned officials, he noted. According to sources, the cost of the reserve site in the layout and 10 feet encroachment space would together cost nearly Rs 10.74 crore as per the current market value.
“We have found nearly 20 unapproved layouts in our limits and action will be initiated against them,” said Eswaran.