Illegal structures abound at Kukatpally

 Kukatpally: Illegal structures are on the rise in the Kukatpally horizon. The Kukatpally circle region has architects directly constructing the building without getting legal approvals from the GHMC, the wing responsible for town planning. The architects allegedly bribe the officials to avoid legal procedures.

Business deals go on till 9 PM at the GHMC office, trying to get permissions for these unauthorised buildings.

A few links at the GHMC help them to cut to the chase and get the paperwork done despite the refusal of GHMC and town planning officials to issue approvals. These real estate sharks have been openly violating the Building Regulation Scheme (BRS) and Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) set up a few years back respectively, by constructing two more floors than the permissible limit for each building. With the approvals for each floor costing up to Rs 1.5 lakh and more than Rs one lakh to build extra floors, these architects do not hesitate to shell out bribes to erect the structures.

The rules permit no more than two floors for a 500-yard building but the architects pay no heed to them. Work continues post 10 pm convincing municipal officials to comply with their demands and complete the work on time.

Shankar Lingam, an architect at Kukatpally has allegedly  constructed more than 10 buildings in localities such as Kukatpally Housing Board, Addagutta Society, Sai Nagar and Sardar Patel Nagar illegally. Repeated attempts to contact the GHMC officials of the area have failed as the officials were unavailable to comment on the issue.