Fate of penthouses on July 25

The officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will meet on July 25 to decide on the penthouses pending under the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS).
There are about 1,500 applications relating to penthouses on multi-storeyed buildings having five or more floors.
However, majority of the applicants have not submitted the mandatory “no objection certificate” which has to be issued by the fire services department and the Airports Authority of India.
The GHMC officials and the fire department will finalise the fire safety norms to be stipulated for regularisation of penthouses. Also, the meeting is expected to take a decision on relaxing norms on the fire safety equipment to be installed by the penthouse owner.
Besides, an NOC from the AAI is difficult to get and a decision on this front is also likely to be taken at the meeting, sources said.
The GHMC chief city planner, Mr Purushotham Reddy, said the meeting is aimed at listing out feasible guidelines facilitating owners of penthouses to provide fire safety equipment to get an NOC. “For this reason, the director-general of fire services will be participating in the meeting to facilitate spot decisions,” he said.
Meanwhile, the GHMC has decided to conduct BPS melas every Monday and Tuesday. The building regularisation certificates would be given on these two days every week, and pending documents along with penalisation charges will be accepted on the remaining days of the week.