Like Haryana, Punjab mulls stilt-plus-four floors

In a move that is bound to result in burden on the existing infrastructure and civic amenities, Punjab, on the pattern of Haryana, has proposed allowing the construction of stilt-plus-four floors on residential plots in licensed colonies and sectors.

By allowing four storeys, besides stilt parking, the Housing and Urban Development Department in the draft “Punjab Unified Building Rules, 2025" has allowed an increase in the height of the buildings up to 17.5m. The waiver would come with a rider that the plot should be situated on roads that are 12m (40ft) or wider.

With an eye on revenue generation and making rules user-friendly, the government has proposed additional ground coverage that would be purchasable as per the collector rates in the respective areas.

Once notified after considering the public option, the unified rules would be applicable in the urban areas governed by the Urban Housing Department and the Local Bodies Department.

Sources in the government said the waiver for allowing additional floors was bound to create chaos in old cities and congested areas, especially in the civic bodies where areas are already struggling with solid waste and sewerage challenges, besides parking chaos.

In old urban estates in cities like Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, the civic amenities are not designed to take additional population load.

A former Chief Town Planner Gurpreet Singh, said while relaxing the norms it would be more practical to conduct an “infrastructure capacity audit".

He said the study should be area specific with a distinction between old sectors and the new ones.

Another issue that is bound to raise hackles is the proposal to allow 50 per cent of the equivalent parking space (parking norms) purchasable.

This means that any property owner who wants to commercially exploit 50 per cent of the area, otherwise mandated space for parking of vehicles, can purchase it by paying the fee. “This would lead to parking chaos unless community parking was ensured in such areas. They are selling parking space which should never be saleable", said Jeet Kumar Gupta, a senior town planner and a former adviser to PUDA.

Punjab