SCB Residents Suffer From Antiquated Building Rules
Residents of Secunderabad Cantonment face prolonged delays and restrictions due to outdated building byelaws, as fresh objections stall long-awaited reforms.
Hyderabad: Even as people living in GHMC limits enjoy user-friendly regulations, the residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment continue to suffer from antiquated building regulations, which make obtaining permission to build or modify their houses long and frustrating.
Attempts to revise these outdated rules, dating back to 1935, have once again hit a roadblock. The defence ministry’s principal directorate has raised fresh objections to the draft building byelaws approved by the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) just last month, forcing officials to go back to the drawing board.
Although the SCB has made four separate attempts since 2008 to update the byelaws, each proposal has either been rejected or delayed by the defence ministry. This time, the Centre itself had requested new proposals, even setting up an expert committee with representatives from the GHMC, JNTU, HMDA, and others.
The committee submitted its report, and based on that, the 2024 draft was prepared and approved at the local level. But residents’ hopes of relief have once again dimmed.
“We’re still stuck with colonial-era restrictions,” said S.K. Kareemuddin, a Cantonment resident. “Most plots under 133 square yards can’t even get basic building approval, and apartments are completely barred. That’s just not realistic anymore.”
Because of the rigid rules, many homeowners have been forced to build without formal approval. Officials themselves estimate that more than 90 per cent of constructions in the area are technically unauthorised, yet cannot be regularised under the present framework.
The SCB has now been asked to revise the draft once more, incorporating the latest set of objections from the defence ministry. SCB officials say they hope to complete this process by the end of May, but it could take another year to receive full approval from Delhi.
