Corporation seals 20 commercial buildings

Corporation seals 20 commercial buildings

The Hindu - Staff Correspondent

It is part of the first phase of the sealing drive


AT WORK: Officials and staff of Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation sealing a building, during the first phase of sealing drive in Hubli on Tuesday.

HUBLI: The Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation conducted the first phase of the sealing drive of commercial complexes of more than 2,000 sq. ft. here on Tuesday, during which as many as twenty buildings were sealed completely and two partially.

Twelve teams comprising of officials and staff from HDMC conducted the drive under police protection and it concluded without any resistance.

Two buildings situated near old KSRTC bus stand and New Cotton Market belonging to Habib and Satyanarayana Hubballi were exempted as the owners of the commercial buildings produced the original completion certificate during the visit of the HDMC team. The officials after close verification of the document decided not to seal the two buildings.

Similarly two commercial buildings were sealed partially as the owners did not have the completion certificate for the extended constructions.

Superintending engineer of HDMC R.L. Nayak informed that among the commercial buildings that were sealed on Tuesday, nineteen were in Hubli and one in Dharwad.

The buildings that were sealed on Tuesday are Moorusavir Math Complex opposite old bus stand, Umachagi Complex on Koppikar Road, three buildings owned by Nazir Ahmed Gadagkar, president of Anjuman-e-islam and Modern Hall at Dharwad.

The HDMC officials have said the sealing drive against commercial buildings without completion certificates would continue in a phased manner. It has already clarified that the list of first twenty-four buildings released by the corporation were identified for sealing based on their total area. Meanwhile in a release, HDMC has explained the need for conducting the sealing drive.

It has clarified that because the buildings were occupied without obtaining completion certificates, the general public were facing parking problem. As a result of vehicles being parked on the road owing to lack of parking in such buildings, the chances of accidents had increased, it said.

These buildings did not have fire safety measures, increasing the risk to life of the occupants of such buildings, it has said.