After a three-month sample survey of 8,320 buildings across municipal corporations and Nagar Palika, the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) has concluded that almost 35% of the surveyed structures are without building-use (BU) permissions in Gujarat.

The causes comprise the addition of floors, the change of usage of buildings, and jurisdictional problems.

If penalty measures were to be performed for buildings without the BU nod, then it would lead to vast demolitions. In its advice to the state government, the urban development department has said that an ordinance can be brought out with certain conditions for property owners to surmount this legal hindrance.

The recommendation will be submitted to the high court before the department officially follows it. The objective is minimum damage, said a senior official in the urban development department.

The survey had started in January, and 1,050 buildings in Ahmedabad, 1,000 in Surat, 800 in Vadodara, and 750 in Rajkot, were surveyed for BU permissions.

Some major features that were examined included the zone in which a property was located, the road width in front of the property, whether the land belongs to private people or has been allotted by the state, and the status of fire safety compliance.

Also considered were aspects such as whether there is a change of use of a building, whether the building is a health hazard, and the civic utility status.

Around 32% of the 1,050 buildings surveyed did not have BU permissions in Ahmedabad. In all, 2,160 buildings were surveyed within Nagar Palika boundaries, 5,600 within the eight municipal corporations, and about 560 under the urban development authority boundaries.

There were instances where Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) in Ahmedabad was charging unauthorised development fees but was not offering BU permissions. Several of these buildings now have excess for which there is no BU approval, said a senior Ahmedabad municipal corporation (AMC) official.

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