PANAJI
The State will have a whole new Town and Country Planning Act within about six months so as to modernise the regulation and to rid of some of the obsolete aspects of the existing law, Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Monday.
"Time has come for change. The existing TCP Act was brought in by my father in the seventies... A committee of experts is meeting people to study best practices," Rane said while addressing a press conference after holding a consultative meeting with top officials of all the departments coming under his charge.
Rane said, the TCP legislation must be people-friendly and those seeking to build should not be at the mercy of one person sitting on the chair or the planning bodies.
"If you want permissions you should be able to go to the department and get them. People should not be at the mercy of those sitting in the chair," Rane said.
He said, the committee of experts is going around doing the job of preparing the base Act and added that the new law will have provisions to ensure that builders maintain the uniqueness and architectural peculiarity of Goa.
The Town and Country Planning Board had passed a resolution to formulate a new TCP law back in August 2022. However, there has been no much discussion or debate on the matter since then although the government has amended the existing TCP Act to bring in a plethora of rules to permit constructions in hitherto no development zones.
Rane also said, the TCP Board decision to allocate higher FSIs to properties of old Housing societies has been well received across Goa.
"Even this policy will be transparently implemented with housing societies being granted permission for the redevelopment without any hassles," Rane said, adding that those availing of the extra FSI will not be permitted to build whatever they like but conforming to the unique aesthetics in Goa.
The minister also said, that TCP has written to award-winning architect Hafeez Contractor to frame the heritage-centric regulation.
"The TCP department has enlisted the support of Contractor to frame the heritage-related policies and guidelines. We are waiting for his inputs," Rane said.
