Punjab amends building bye-laws to boost infrastructure

The Punjab government released its amended building bye-laws, aimed to give a boost to construction and infrastructure development in the state, on Tuesday.

The new bye-laws, covering construction of residential, commercial and industrial buildings, including hotels, miniplexes and other infrastructure projects, were aimed at making construction activity in Punjab more seamless and hassle-free for all the stakeholders, state minister Brahm Mohindra said in a statement here.

In order to encourage planned development and investment in urban Punjab, hotels, motels and guest houses were also brought under the ambit of the amended bye-laws, the statement said.

Under the earlier bye-laws, the minimum plot size for hotels was 1,000 square metres. But in thickly populated urban areas with a mixed population strata, there was a need for budget hotels near railway stations and bus stands.

In such areas, only small-size plots are available. Therefore, the plot size for hotels has been reduced from 1,000 sq. Mts to a minimum of 200 sq. Mts.

"The move will encourage tourism in cities," the statement said.

The floor area ratio (FAR) of multiplexes was also increased, the statement said, adding that it would invite more mega projects in the state, which will bring more investments and employment opportunities.

The FAR is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built.

The new bye-laws also allow storage godowns to be constructed along with industrial units with rates on par with those units, which will help cater to the needs of small-scale storage for industrial as well as commercial units, the statement said.

According to the amended bye-laws, cinema halls would now be considered as "miniplexes", with their seating capacity increased to 999 without any bar of minimum seats per cinema hall, which was fixed at 250 earlier, it added.