Kolkata: The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has issued stop operation notices to owners of 37 residential buildings identified across New Town for illegally running hotels and guest houses in the building premises without permission.
As per the list of the residential buildings to which notices have been served for illegal commercial use, 19 of the buildings are located in different blocks in New Town Action Area I, and 18 of them are in Action Area II.
Officials said that the identified residential premises were found to be operating as guest houses, hotels, and banquets without obtaining the requisite permissions or statutory clearances from the competent authorities. "These operations were found to be in violation of the notification issued by the state urban development department back in 2015, which allows limited non-residential use of residential premises only with prior approval and compliance with all applicable norms. The concerned parties have been directed to stop all such illegal guest house, fab hotel, and banquet activities with immediate effect until further orders. This step has been taken particularly from the prism of (fire) disaster management," reads the notice.
Since earlier this year, the authorities have been conducting surveys in regular intervals to identify such residential buildings across the township used for unauthorised commercial purposes without permission. The authorities served stop operation notices to 11 ceremonial houses that were running without obtaining the requisite permission or statutory clearance from the competent authorities. Three nursing homes were also issued stop operation notices for running illegally from residential houses without valid permission. In the last few weeks, NKDA has served notices to owners of 13 residential buildings to stop unauthorised commercial use.
"Most of these establishments were found to be running with grave fire hazard implications and without necessary permission from NKDA. In some cases, the building plan was also deviated. The building owners have been directed to remain restricted from carrying out any non-residential activities in the residential building," said an NKDA official.
With gross anomalies previously found in matters of many residential buildings in New Town being used for various commercial purposes, NKDA is now first issuing provisional no objection to interested parties wanting to partially use a residential building for commercial purposes. The individual or company can start operating business for a 5-year tenure only after receiving final permission from the authorities.