MCC and MUDA disagree over CDP

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Feb 10: The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) feels that the master plan for the development of the city, recently unveiled by the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA), cannot be implemented because of several flaws within it. The MUDA, however, is adamant and says that the MCC must implement the master plan within the next 2 years. 

A series of faulty Comprehensive Development Plans (CDPs) in the past had led to building norm violations. The MUDA says that the new plan will make illegal construction and norm violation impossible. Mayor Shankar Bhat, however, begs to differ and says that the real estate and construction industry in Mangalore is just recovering from a major slump that lasted six years. Huge construction companies such as Motisham, Prestige, Shobha and others are now moving into Mangalore, which means that big money is flowing into the city. The city cannot afford to have lax building rules, he said, and simultaneously investors must be given the opportunity to protect their investment interests.

Since 1990, the construction industry in Mangalore has been breaking all the rules because of the absence of an effective Master Plan. As a result of this, 47 huge buildings in Mangalore have been considered “unsafe and illegal” by the MUDA. The past one-and-a-half year has witnessed two major fires in multi storyed buildings. The fire department has put these structures into scrutiny and declared that more than 50 percent of the buildings in Mangalore are prone to fire hazards.


Mr. P G Ramesh, the commissioner of MUDA said: “Out of 30,600 hectares available under Mangalore local planning area, 20,700.30 hectares has been earmarked for the total urbanization process. Of this, 11,317.59 hectares (46.66 %) has been set aside for residential purpose, 892.97 hectares for commercial (3.68%), 2,790.11 hectares industrial (11.51%), public and semi-public purpose 1,047.64 hectares (4.32 %), parks 2,005.74 hectares (8.27%), transport 2,629.48 hectares (10.84%), an 45.80 hectares for public use (0.19 %).”

According to the Master Plan, buildings over 18 feet in height are high-rise buildings. Roads leading to such buildings must be at least 9 meters wide with provisions to extend it to 12 meters or more if required. The New Plan gives permissions only if the high rise buildings meet these requirements. 

While the Shobha-Prestige company, which has an ongoing project at Derebail, is co-operative, Mumbai-based builders are far from happy. They claim that they have invested more than Rs 500 crore in Mangalore during the last 2 years as per the CDP of the city. The new plan, they say, will eat up their profits. The companies are already looking for better places to invest their money. 

Sources in the Urban Development Ministry said that the new plan “appears to have some sense of planned development,” and that the urban development experts feel that the plan is “good for a starter.”