Patna,(BiharTimes): Just three days after the Nitish cabinet’s nod to the urban development departments to build 16-19 storied flats and commercial complexes in Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur came a strict Patna high court directive on high rise buildings.

On Friday a division bench comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Shivaji Pandey directed the state government and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to stop construction of more than 11-metre-high multistorey buildings on less than 20-feet-wide roads and 15-metre-high buildings on less than 40-feet-wide roads under the Patna municipal area.

The court expressed its displeasure over the commercial use of residential buildings. It said the principal secretary (urban development department), PMC commissioner and Patna DM would be answerable for any non-compliance with the court order.

The order was passed on a PIL filed by Narendra Mishra, challenging the PMC authorities concerned who allowed construction of a 16.4-metre-high multistorey building on the 11-feet-wide Raiji Ki Gali in East Boring Canal Road locality of Patna. It stayed construction of the building.

Passing a general order on the PIL for future construction of any multistorey building the court pulled up the PMC authorities for allowing uncontrolled construction of such buildings in Patna as “this would cause many civic problems.” It asked the PMC how the architects were allowed to design plans for the multistorey buildings having height more than the prescribed norms.