Chandigarh, April 11 -- In a major policy shift, the UT department of urban planning has, for the first time, approved stilt-plus-six-floor structures for the Sector 53 housing scheme. Until now, only stilt-plus-five structures, as seen in the Sector 63 Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) flats, were allowed in Chandigarh. The move is aimed at making the most out of the existing prime land in the city, which has limited scope for horizontal expansion.

In another first, the UT has also doubled the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 1.2 to 2.4 for the project, thus paving the way for higher-density development. FAR is an important urban planning tool that determines the maximum permissible built-up area in relation to the size of a land parcel. The in...