Telangana govt relaxes TDR rules for high-rise buildings after builders’ objections

Telangana government has relaxed Transferable Development Rights norms following builders’ objections. TDR utilization slabs for high-rise buildings, setback relaxations, and submission schedules have been revised to ease costs and encourage uniform urban development.

Hyderabad: Following the objections raised by builders over the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) rules, the State government has taken a ‘U’ turn and relaxed a few norms.

On January 16 this year, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) issued GOMs16. As per the orders, it was mandatory for builders constructing high-rise buildings above 10 floors to ensure that 10 percent of the built-up area above the 10th floor was executed through TDR utilization.

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The government stressed that the idea behind making 10 percent TDR utilization for 10 floors and above structures was to increase demand for TDR. This would also improve acceptance among landowners, who lose their properties for different projects.

However, the builders raised objections over the TDR rules and wanted the government to reconsider its decision. They raised objections that mandatory TDR utilization would increase the apartment prices by at least Rs.350 per square foot to Rs.400 per square foot.

They also argued that TDR clauses cannot be imposed uniformly across the city. This would serve as a deterrent for promotion of high rise structures in other zones, they had observed.

Accordingly, the government issued GOMs 95 on Saturday relaxing a few norms and creating slabs for TDR utilization for high rise structures.

As per the new rules, the TDR utilization in case of high-rise building above 10 floors and up to 20 floors is fixed at three percent of total built up area above 10 floors. For high-rise buildings above 20 floors, five percent of total built up area above 20 floors is to be done through TDR utilization.

However, 50 percent of TDR has to be submitted at the time of granting building permission and the balance 50 percent should be submitted prior to issue of occupancy certificate.

Further, stating that high-rise building means a structure with 21 meters or more in height, chimneys, cooling towers, boiler rooms, lift machine rooms, cold storage and other non-working areas, in the case of industrial buildings and water tanks and architectural features in respect of other buildings have been excluded from the clause.

In case of plots having extent from 750 sq meters to 2000 sq meters, buildings from 18 meters to 21 meters height will be permitted only through utilization of TDR, subject to provision for required parking and compliance with other rules.

In non-high-rise buildings, setback relaxation may be permitted through utilization of TDR, subject to maintaining minimum setbacks as prescribed in case of road widening.

Similarly, in case of high-rise buildings, setback relaxation up to 10 percent of permissible setbacks may be allowed through TDR, subject to maintaining a minimum of 7 meters all-round setbacks.

In cases where master plan roads are modified, reduced, or deleted, the applicant will have the option to pay applicable development or conversion charges or submit equivalent TDR in lieu of such charges, the new order said.