George Town building sealed for violation

Chennai:

A seven-storied building in Umperson Street in George Town was locked and sealed on Wednesday for deviation from the approved plan besides construction of additional unauthorized floors.

The building is one of the 48 cases of multi-storied building directed by the monitoring committee to take action to carry out locking and sealing.

Sources told Express that the owner of the building obtained approval on May 16, 1994, from Chennai Corporation for the construction of ground floor, mezannine floor and first floor for stationery shop.

However, the construction deviated to the approval issued by Corporation of Chennai and additional unauthorised floors are constructed.

The ground floor and first floor deviated from the approved plan and second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors were unauthorized construction.

Interestingly, the owner completed and occupied the building for commercial purpose. The ground floor was used as shopping premises while the upper floors were used for lodging, sources added.

A demolition notice was issued on March 2007 and the owner applied for regularization, which was rejected on August 23, 2011. It was on August 26, the owner was served the lock and seal notice and the building was sealed on Wednesday.