Five floors construction with two basements going on at old Jewel Cinema by wrongly claiming plot area as 25500 Sqft in approved commercial site plan when original area at site is 21330 Sqft without maintaining mandatory setbacks covering more area under construction

This commercial approved site plan has no mention of size of plot , dimensions of plots including length, breadth and curvature without which how come that area was shown 25500 Sqft besides there was no mention of width of access road to this site from front and backside that is whether its front is towards Dogra Chowk or towards Vinayak Bazzar to set setbacks in accordance with guidelines of JMP-2032 and also newly framed Unified Building Bye-laws-2021. Moreover length and breadth of basements were also not mentioned in site plan.
According to sources, existing area at the site is not more than 3 Kanal 19 marla and out of which nearly 15 Marlas have already consumed in road widening towards Vinayak Bazzar side where there was existing entry gate of old Jewel Theatre. This was the prime reason why site plan was without vital mention of length, breadth and curvature of plot and width of approaching roads both from front and backside
Building staff section in their report recommending stage-2nd construction didn’t mentioned whether front side was to be left from side towards Vinayak Bazzar or from side towards Dogra Chowk main road as on the basis of which the centre of front road side was to be taken as 76’ from central line of road and also in case of rear side
The proposed ground construction coverage was 33.92% against total plot area 25500 Sqft and proposed FAR was 180. The reality is that after deducting proposed construction area from total plot area 25500 Sqft it becomes 16850 Sqft which was to be left as vacant on the ground , this area is absolutely not available at site which was imaginatively projected to give undue favour to owners to cover beyond hundred percent area under construction
GY CORRESPONDENT
jammu, apr 26
Key Plans are always taken care of while approving any site plan whether residential or commercial as they graphically represent walls, doors, windows, room numbers, and proper mention of size of plot that is length, breadth and curvature as per JMP-2032. The purpose of key plan is to locate the site of construction in region. The Key plan shows main roads and well-known buildings as landmark to reach the site. Key plan should cover area of 2 km radius around the site. The area covering the property is highlighted with hatching lines. A good master plan would include a key plan, site plan, building plan and service plan besides size of plot properly designating sides of plot that is east,west,north and south and also roads approaching towards front and backside. Sadly this is not true in case of Jammu Municipal Corporation as most of the site plans approved by JMC whether residential or commercial always lack well defined key plans and also size of plot which is infect a serious loop holes to provide undue benefit to owners of both residential and commercial site plans while not clearly defining key plans.
To put things in perspective, Urban Transport Environment Improvement Committee ( UTEIC) under the Chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr Raghav Langer dated 1-11-2021 met do deliberate upon the only building permission case for the construction of commercial building (G+4 Floors) as Retail Commercial Halls with two number of basements for parking belonging to Rajan Gupta s/o Sat Pal and Mudit Gupta s/o Rajan Gupta at Jewel after dismantling old Jewel Cinema theatre in Vinayak Bazzar falling under Khasra No.281 Min, Khewat No.31, Khata No.51 showing total plot area 25500 Sqft which becomes nearly 4.75 Kanal in Ward-18, Jammu processed under JMC Submit No.12364 dated 9-2—2021. It deserves mentioning here that Commissioner, JMC, Vice Chairman, JDA ,Chief Town Planner, Superintending Engineer PW(R&B) Department Jammu, Representative of IGP Traffic Police Jammu, Representative of IGP Traffic Police Jammu Zone, Representative of Deputy Commissioner Jammu. It deserves mentioning here that during the meeting, the Chief Town Planner (Member Secretary UTEIC) placed before Committee NOCs/observations received from above mentioned members including National Highway Authority of India vide Letter No.PD/JMU/Access Permission/2020-21/1193 dated 28-4-2021.
Worthwhile to mention here that UTEIC after clearing only building permission case of old Jewel theater, the committee unanimously decided to recommend abolition of Urban Transport Environment Improvement Committee ( UTEIC) on the ground that the approved Unified Building Bye-laws 2021 don’t have any mention or recommendations for UTEIC. Moreover there were Court cases against the decision of UTIEC on the issue of non statutory nature of Committee.
Accordingly the owners applied for commercial building permission vide application submit No. 12364 dated 9-2-2021.However JMC granted commercial permission to owners for stage-1st construction of basement-1st measuring 10315 Sqft and Basement -2nd measuring 12251 Sqft against total plot area of 25500 Sqft vide No.09/JMC/BS/2022 dated 5-4-2022 . Surprisingly in the site plan of this commercial site plan approved, there was no mention of size of plot with no mentions of dimensions of plots including length, breadth and curvature and without such an important revelation how come that area was shown 25500 Sqft besides there was no mention of size of access road to this site from front and backside that is whether its front is towards Dogra Chowk or towards Vinayak Bazzar that is which should have been clearly defined to set setbacks in accordance with guidelines of JMP-2032 and also newly framed Unified Building Bye-laws-2021. Moreover length and breadth of basements were also not mentioned in site plan.
This has been done as per sources that the plot area as shown in site plan is much less than as projected in site plan which according to sources is not more than 3 Kanal 19 marla and out of which nearly 15 Marlas have already consumed in road widening towards Vinayak Bazzar side where there was existing entry gate of old Jewel Theatre. This was the prime reason why site plan was without vital mention of length, breadth and curvature of plot. Moreover as per JMP-2032, the road width should not be less than 60 ft but while visiting site the ongoing construction has front side towards road is not more than 45 ft towards Vinayak Bazzar whereas the back of this ongoing construction is towards Dogra Chowk which is 60 ft. This vital parameter has been deliberately ignored in approved site plan as it has no mention of proper approach road towards this site. Moreover after visiting site, as per approved commercial site plan, it is not possible to observe mandatory setbacks as mentioned in approved site plan.
The owners competing constructing two basements applied for stage 2nd construction after the staff of building section of Chief Town Planner visited the site and recommended stage-2nd construction declaring basements construction as per approved site plan dated 26-9-2022. Visiting building section staff showed that owners have left 20’9” from front side ,15’ from rear side, side-1 23’ and side-2nd 43’ with height of basements 8’6”. But sadly there was no mention of Building staff section report that the above mentioned front side was to be left from side towards Vinayak Bazzar or from side towards Dogra Chowk main road as on the basis of which the centre of front road side was to be taken as 76’ from central line of road. Similarly same was also not mentioned in the report that from where the rear side was taken whether from east or west side of the road and besides side-1 and side-02 whether from Dogra Chowk side or Vinayak Bazzar side. Also the area as mentioned in site plan was also not cross-checked which means that the area of plot 25500 Sqft area is available at site or not and also whether the vacant space is available as mentioned in site plan.
Anyhow despite serious discrepancies in stage 1st construction, Anil Raina, Chief Town Planner approved stage-2nd construction vide No. 1421/JMC/BS/2022 dated 29-9-2022 allowing owner ground floor 8650 Sqft,first floor 9150 Sqft, 2nd and third floor 9320 Sqft each and 4th floor 9440 Sqft. The building height from ground floor was granted as 63’3” excluding monty/lift and FAR should be 179.92 with setbacks 76’ from central line of road, side -1st 22’9”, side-2nd 43’, rear 20’ . The proposed ground construction coverage was 33.92% against total plot area 25500 Sqft and proposed FAR was 180. The reality is that after deducting proposed construction area from total plot area 25500 Sqft it becomes 16850 Sqft which was to be left as vacant on the ground , this area is absolutely not available at site which was imaginatively projected to give undue favour to owners to cover beyond hundred percent area under construction but the same was deliberately ignored by all those who visited the site to ensure owners successfully cover more than hundred percent area. The owner has deposited Rs 960850 dated 28-9-2020 as building fee. The owners didn’t deposit labour cess worth lacs. In the stage-2nd approved site plan same procedure adopted as was done in stage 1st construction like approaching roads size from both front or backside was not mentioned and also it was not mentioned where the proposed commercial building will have front and backside on the basis of which setbacks are set.Now the construction has already reached 5th floor without maintaining mandatory setbacks and covering more area than permissible due to full support of enforcement staff and JMC higher officials.
It will not be wrong to say that site plan has been wrongly approved as the area mentioned in approved site plan is not available at the site as the site plan approved by Anil Raina just one day before his volunteer retirement who remained infamous for approving site plans against guidelines of JMP-2032.Furthermore allowing such a violative construction in the heart of city will put credibility of competitive authorities which have provided NOCs for this huge commercial construction against JMP-2032 guidelines. It is quite visible that the authorities which have given NOCs may not have visited the site and the owners being influential and financially sound persons may have managed such NOCs. In light of above facts, the concerned competitive authorities which have given NOCs should visit site henceforth and should cross-check whether owners actually deserve NOCs. If it is not done, then it will encourage other influential persons to undertake commercial constructions without observing mandatory setbacks and also guidelines of JMP-2032. Commissioner JMC should constitute a committee to look into this whether any undue favour has been granted in favour of owners being influential and financially sound .