Hyderabad: Barring a few major players, most private developers are giving occupancy certificates a miss, it has emerged.
In 2014 alone, hundreds of fresh applications for construction of buildings were submitted to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Of the applications submitted, 70 per cent were granted, but now not even half of the projects have come back for an OC.
M. Chandra Mohan, a resident of Anand Bagh, said OCs are not procured by many developers. “When the municipal corporation sends a notice for regularisation of the building (flats), the owners are becoming victims since they end up paying huge sums to regularise their plots and the builders escape.”
He added, “The civic body should collect the amount, including the cost of fire safety equipment for regularising high-rises and penthouses from the builders.”
Even GHMC authorities said that despite the civic body giving out more than 5,000 building permissions, depending on the applications, only 600 to 700 building owners or builders have come forward to take occupancy certificates for their projects.
The registration and stamps (R&S) department should be insisting on the occupancy certificate for buildings and approve the same for registration.
As per GHMC records dated December 2013, 39,420 building plans were submitted in the past four years, of which, the GHMC approved around 34,000 of these building plans and rejected the rest for various reasons. However, only nine to ten per cent applications were submitted for OCs.
