Steps to address concerns of residents over structure plan in Kalamassery municipality

The Kalamassery municipality has initiated steps to address the possible concerns of the residents over the revised zonal regulations in the structure plan for the local body. The revisions, which the municipality claims to be “an emergency relief” for the people, have been included in a draft notification on the Structure Plan for Central City Kochi published by the State government on March 15. Kalamassery is among the five municipalities included in the central city region. The region also covers areas of the Kochi Corporation and six grama panchayats.

As per the land use map of the plan, Kalamassery municipality has been classified into mainly agriculture, residential, industrial, public-semi public and park and playground zones. The agriculture use zone has now been further split into ‘with risk’ and ‘without risk’ zones. In the ‘agriculture use zone with risk’ category, the limit for residential buildings has been increased to 500 sq metres from 300 sq metres. For commercial buildings, the limit has been increased to 300 sq m from 200 sq m. In the ‘agriculture zone without risk’ category, relaxations have been brought in allowing the construction of all types of residential buildings, including apartments.