The town planning department of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) has raked in about Rs 15.2 crore in just the first four months of the 2022-23 financial year.
Of the 830 building proposals, the town planning (TP) department cleared 469 by July 31. Most of these proposals were for individual houses and some were for housing projects by builders. The officials claimed that the amount generated this time in the first four months is the highest it made during this period.
Ramchandra Mahajan, the assistant director of KMC town planning, said, “The building sector has come out of the pandemic. This is revealed in the number of construction activities going on in the city during the current financial year. Last year, we raked in Rs 12 crore during the same period, and in previous years, it was much less due to pandemic.”
Civic administrator Kadambari Balkawade has given the target of Rs 60 crore to the TP department for the whole year. Mahajan said the target for last entire year was Rs 45 crore. “We managed to generate around Rs 80 crore. This year too, we are confident of crossing the target,” said Mahajan.
Mahajan said the TP department held several camps to clear the building permission files, which helped generate revenue. He also said that the new unified development control rules are less ambiguous and benefit the developers, both individuals and the housing project developers, by allowing maximum utilisation of land.
“In the unified rules, as the margin space is reduced, the developers get more floor space index, allowing more construction. This has made the developers happy and, therefore, many are turning up seeking the sanctioning of the plans,” added Mahajan.
For a speedy approval, the KMC has started sanctioning building proposals online from July 1. Mahajan said the online mode has started showing the results.