Khan Market (File Photo)

NEW DELHI: About 30 leading restaurants and several other shops located on the first floor and floors above it in Khan Market could be sealed today. The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee is learned to have ordered New Delhi Municipal Council to execute the order for alleged violation of provisions of the 2021 master plan.

"The monitoring committee has given the order to seal the first and above floors of Khan Market for misuse of land. The market is notified as a local shopping complex and as per the rule, owners will have to pay use conversion charge to the council. The committee will inspect the market in the morning," sources said.

As per the masterplan, traders who are running commercial activities above ground floor in local shopping complexes will have to pay use conversion charges at Rs 22,274 per square metre to the local body. The earlier rate was Rs 89,000, which was cut down to Rs 22,274 by DDA.

Use conversion charges are levied for misuse of land. If the land use of a particular plot is for residential purpose, the owner will have to pay the ‘use conversion charges’ to convert the plot into a commercial one.

It is a one-time payment while the conversion charge is paid annually for development of the market and parking facilities,” officials said.

Khan Market has been under the scanner for allegedly not following fire safety rules as amajority of the restaurants do not have clearance from the fire department.

The monitoring committee has directed the civic bodies to collect use conversion charges from all 106 local shopping complexes in the city by January 15, 2018, failing which the markets will be sealed. Sanjiv Mehra, president of Khan Market Traders Association, said about 40 shops had already been converted after the owners paid the charges.

“The owners have paid already as far as the conversion charges go and about 40 units have been converted and are running commercial activity. Proper plans should be prepared by NDMC and the corporations before initiating any sealing action on directions of monitoring committee. The charges paid by the owners were meant for developing the market. However, no development has happened in the market,” said Mehra.

He added, “The civic bodies have failed to implement the 2021 masterplan in totality and in the past 10 years the civic bodies have done nothing to ensure that it is enforced. There is a need for a zonal plan, which should be prepared by the civic bodies. There should be complete transparency and the ambiguities in the masterplan should be sorted out. Traders are suffering because of all this.”



In Video: Khan Market under scanner: several eateries, salons sealed