Over 1 lakh illegal buildings in Hyderabad sit on Tinderbox, Real Estate News, ET Real Estate

Hyderabad: Twenty days into the new year and the city has already witnessed two major accidents related to illegally constructed buildings. The first was the collapse of a slab of an under-construction building on January 7. KukatpallyDue to which two laborers died.

The latest is Thursday’s blaze which is said to have continued for about 12 hours on Mantri Road. Both buildings had structural deviations from their permitted plan, and additional storeys were constructed.

Hardly anything has been done to tackle the problem of illegal construction in the city. In Hyderabad, there are over one lakh such buildings, many of which are unsafe due to lack of setbacks and illegal construction of additional floors, and are located in congested localities.

“Many buildings are rising rapidly after getting approval for a special plan and unethically adding additional floors,” said SGS Murthy, structural consultant and professor at MVSR Engineering College. “There is one in our locality in Peerjadiguda, where permission was given for stilts plus one and they built three more floors. Additional floors require a certain amount of minimum plinth and setback in order to remain stable.

Back in 2016, GHMC As many as 1.39 lakh applications were received for the building regularization scheme, and the civic body is reluctant to touch the structures as they wait to earn over ₹1,150 crore in revenue after the high court lifted the stay order.

Officials say LB Nagar circle is the epicenter of illegal construction in the city as they received over 22,000 applications for the regularization scheme, the highest ever. Sources said they are conducting a survey for illegal constructions in Charminar, LB Nagar and Serilingampally zones, which would take the number to over a thousand.

In fact, at least eight illegal constructions have come to the fore in the 200-metre no-construction zone near the Charminar and Mecca Masjid monuments in the past few years. Citizen activists say the government has used regularization thrice to legalize illegal constructions.