Srikakulam: Realtors ignore SUDA norms on layouts

Srikakulam: Real estate venture owners are violating Srikakulam Urban Development Authority (SUDA) norms in forming layouts and selling the house sites by getting approval from village panchayats. After purchasing them, the owners of the sites are unable to get further permissions for construction of residential buildings and also to get loans from the nationalised banks.

A number of layouts are coming up in villages located on either side of the National Highway (NH-16) where demand is high for house sites. Here the realtors are getting permission for their layouts from the village panchayats concerned and selling plots.

Several layouts thus formed have no approval from the SUDA in Ranastalam, Laveru, Etcherla, Srikakulam Rural, Narasannapeta, Kotabommali, Tekkali, Nandigama, Palasa, Mandasa, Sompeta, Kaviti, Kanchili and Itchapuram in the district. In addition, this applies to many laouts in mandal headquarters of Ponduru, Amudalavalasa, Rajama and Palakonda.

For forming a layout, several conditions have to be met. They include conversion of land if it was agricultural land, construction of culverts, if irrigation channel is passing through the area, 40 feet width roads, leaving aside 10 per cent of total extent of the land for community use and others. But most of the realtors are not following all these norms strictly.

When contacted, SUDA assistant planning officer V Krishna said they have been conducting and carrying out verifications across the district to ensure layouts meet the prescribed conditions. "We have identified 496 unapproved layouts so far and initiated steps to issue notices to the owners of the layouts. We will see all the layouts comply with the rule and regulations," he said.