J&K amends building bye-laws

Srinagar, Feb 27: In a significant development, the Jammu & Kashmir Government has amended the Unified Building Bye-Laws, 2021 (UBBL-2021), introducing a fully digital system for building permissions in the Union Territory.
The Housing & Urban Development Department has made key changes to the UBBL-2021 under powers vested in it by the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act, the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act, and the Jammu & Kashmir Development Act.
According to the amendments, all building permission requests must be submitted online through the Housing & Urban Development Department’s portal, along with computer-aided design-based building plans and other requisite documents, through an empanelled Registered Technical Person (RTP).
The request will be submitted online through the empanelled RTP, who is registered with the Architects Organisation or such other authority as notified by the Housing & Urban Development Department.
Applications for permissions will be automatically scrutinized for compliance with the Master Plan/Zonal Plan, Unified Building Bye-Laws, Development Control Regulations, and other applicable norms.
The automatic scrutiny will also verify adherence to mandatory parameters including plot size, setbacks, ground coverage, FAR/F.S.I, height restrictions, parking requirements, and permissible land use. A scrutiny report will then be generated, highlighting compliance and deviations, if any, for applicant and authority review.
“In case of any deficiencies, discrepancies, or shortfalls observed during automated scrutiny, the system shall communicate the same online to the applicant through the Building Permission Portal. The applicant shall be required to submit the compliances or rectify the shortfalls within fifteen (15) days from the date of such online intimation,” the amendments state.
According to the bye-laws, low-risk buildings (such as small residential houses up to G+2 floors on plots under 500 sqm, or small commercial buildings up to 15m height on plots under 300 sqm) can be approved on the basis of self-certification and third-party certification by the RTP.
“Upon acceptance of a complete application accompanied by a valid Self-Certification and Auto Approval Certificate, the Competent Authority shall be exempted from conducting mandatory pre-construction or during-construction site visits for verification of parameters certified in the certificate for low-risk buildings stated above,” the amendments read.
The amendments also provide that No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from departments such as Revenue, PHE, Power, Forest, Fire Services, Railways, and Airports Authority will be processed online through the designated portal of the Housing & Urban Development Department.
The new bye-laws provide that applicants must apply online for the occupancy-cum-completion certificate upon completion of construction. The Building Permission Issuing Authority (BPIA) will issue the certificate online within 15 days of application submission, after conducting field verification of the site (unless exempted under the bye-laws) and obtaining the digital inspection report from the designated inspection team. (KNO)