Huda will give licence to build

The Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) will continue to give building permissions and approve layouts for high-rise structures (above G+2 floors) in areas falling under the erstwhile surrounding municipalities for the next one year. As these areas came under the newly created Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), there was confusion as to who would be the sanctioning authority.

Likewise, the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) and gram panchayats which were giving technical and final approvals would continue to do so for the next one year. The Huda’s jurisdiction was increased from 2,300 sq km to 6,876 sq km by the state government through a GO on Saturday to include 1,003 villages in 54 mandals in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Medak, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts. But for the next one year, in these areas, the DTCP and concerned local authorities like gram panchayats would continue to give permissions and approvals. These decisions were taken at Huda’s board meeting on Saturday.

“The DTCP and gram panchayats in the new Huda areas will give approvals based on Huda norms like wide roads, open space and setbacks from now on. They will collect development fee as is prevalent under Huda and remit the amount to us. The time frame of one year was decided upon as Huda cannot take up additional responsibilities immediately,” said Huda vice chairman Jayesh Ranjan. He added that a deadline of one year had been set for designing and finalising a master plan for the new areas under Huda. A master plan for the erstwhile Huda area has already been completed and awaiting government approval.