With Chandigarh Municipal Corporation coming up with the pilot project on rainwater harvesting, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has already implemented the policy in all of its residential projects launched within its jurisdiction. GMADA made it mandatory to install the rainwater harvesting system in the houses to get no objection certificate (NOC) for the construction of houses. Without the NOC from GMADA, the owners cannot start construction of their houses. A GMADA officer told The Indian Express that the first residential project, Aero City, was launched in 2010 and since then it has been mandatory to conserve the rainwater. “Initially, there were people who failed to comply with the condition and we refused to issue the NOC to them,” the officer said. GMADA’s Estate Officer Khushdil Sandhu said that the conditions apply in all the residential projects and their teams check the houses before issuing the NOC. After Aero City, GMADA had various other projects like Eco City-1, Eco City-2; both in Mullanpur, IT City in Mohali and the Aerotropolis in Mohali. An officer said that the rules were amended in 2010 for the installation of the rainwater harvest systems and these rules are called the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (Building) Amendment Rules, 2010. According to the rules, Rule 45(A) defines the installation of the rooftop rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging. “All the buildings located on plot area of 400 square metres and above shall have rooftop rainwater harvesting system to recharge groundwater as per the specific design to be provided by the development authority concerned,” the officer added.
