Now, while construction activities (buildings coming up anew, or old buildings being re-constructed) coming up on main roads, BDA layouts, etc, can generally be expected to follow some semblence of procedures at least (even if more in their breach), those coming up in the many adjoining village pockets, that abound the city, apparently can't bother with anything even as much.

There is, for instance, this Srinivagilu village road leading out of S T Bed layout, onto the IRR (at Egipura junction), where you can see some construction activity or the other forever. With the entire area already almost totally built-up, the construction generally involves bringing down an existing building, and building anew on the same plinth. And, the re-building is invariably to at least twice the height of the original construction. The picture below shows one such new construction.

I have always wondered if they have engaged an architect (or a structural engineer), if they have a sactioned plan, if they have strengthened the foundation to take care of the additional height (and hence, load), etc. Apparently, if you are building on the plinth of a building that existed earlier, it doesn't require fresh sanctions. But, that's perhaps valid if you are not changing any of the other parameters. The situation here is totally different. All in all, I expect, these are all potential Mumbra type disasters waiting to happen.

The truth besides is that most of these villages are the pocket boroughs of local politicians, where every kind of activity (invariably illegal) is controlled by them. They are so powerful that, in Madiwala, they even managed to divert the National Highway through adjoining Koramangala - check this.

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The picture above was taken in Jan'12, of the same junction as in the picture in my post of 18th April, '13 (scroll above).

Below is another picture of the same junction, taken about a month back. What is happening is the cattle shed (in the picture above) is also now getting built up, and will very likely land up quite like the "ground + 4 + terrace building" (in the picture below).

The same questions as I have raised in my post of 18th Apri, '13, arise once again.

Well, when BBMP officials themselves violate building bye-laws openly (check here), isn't it inevitable that there will be enough marauders waiting to follow suit? Safety and other considerations be dammned!!!

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As predicted (refer my post of 23rd April, scrolling above), a G+4 building has come up in the corner plot (see the picture above). Almost certainly, it has no plan sanction; it has come up more or less on the same foundation as for the single story building that existed there earlier; all it has are the 'blessings' of the local politico (for which, you make a contribution to his supposed "election fund"), which then allows you to do what you want (check here for more on that).

Well, when even an AEE level BBMP official goes about things in the same way (check here for more on that), what else would you expect from the "aam aadmi"?

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Speaking to Express, Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner, said, “We want to know the cause of the fire. If we find any irregularity in construction of the building, or that it lacks required permissions, we can demolish the structure as per provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act,” he said.

Sources in BBMP said that at least 90 per cent of buildings constructed in the area have violated the Town Planning Act.  “In a 10X20 site, four-storey buildings have been constructed. If a fire, like the one on Friday, breaks out, it will spread easily to neighbouring buildings,” a BBMP source said.  “With narrow lanes, buildings should not have more than two floors. Some of these buildings have even encroached upon roads,” said A L Shivakumar, former BBMP councillor of Chickpet ward.

For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here.

This is exactly what I have pointed out in my post of 7th Sept (scroll above to check), pertaining to "developments" in Srinivagilu village (under Egipura ward). And, it's not confined to just Srinivagilu or Chickpet; it's rampant across the city, more specifically in wards that have become the fiefdoms of marauder politicos. Well, is the BBMP going to do something about it; or, is it going to wait for similar mishaps to do its job, but at the cost of precious human lives?

As already stated here, "why is the demolition exercise restricted just to encroachments into lakes and Rajakaluve's? Aren't the 'mega' building law violations in each of the cases cited in this blog serious enough to warrant similar action on the part of the BBMP? Does the CM want to take note?"

Yes, does the CM want to take note?

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