GHMC to make plantation mandatory

​Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to amend the building permission rules by making it mandatory for residents to plant three to 10 saplings and link it with the Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA).

GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said that a proposal amending building permission rules and incorporating WALTA has been sent to the State government for approval. He also hinted that the new building permission rules would come into effect from August this year.

He said henceforth building plan approvals/permissions would be given only if applicants earmark space to grow trees. He said that in order to sustain the tree plantation drive on a continuous basis and to ensure participation of citizens, the civic body had chalked out a plan in such a way that at least three saplings have to be planted by the applicant in order to receive the occupancy certificate.

The civic body chief said that the Corporation would amend the building permission rules to make planting of saplings mandatory. He said citizens eager to get building permission for residential purpose have to plant at least three saplings for a less than 100 square metre building area, five saplings for an area between 101 sqmt to 200 sqmt, 10 saplings for 201 sqmt to 300 sqmt and for above 301 sqmt area 10+5 saplings have to be planted. He clarified that the number of saplings would increase by five for every 100 sqmt increase after 300 sqmt increase in area.

The civic body chief said that for the commercial establishments, the applicants would be asked to plant two saplings for less than 200 sqmt area, four for 201 to 500 sqmt area, six for 501 to 1,000 sqmt area and for above 1001 sqmt areas 6+2 saplings for every 100 sqmt increase, he said.

The GHMC Commissioner further said that in the industrial areas, saplings would be required to be planted as prescribed by the Pollution Control Board. He said that the Corporation would seek suggestions from the citizens after conducting a door-to-door campaign to know about the plant species they were interested to grow on their properties and the civic body would distribute the same to residents.

He said that Haritha Haram was a continuous process to increase green cover across the city. He also said that the Corporation would set up circle-wise nurseries in this regard.

By: Maddy Deekshith