CHANDIGARH: The UT administration has proposed high-rise commercial buildings along the 7.2 km stretch of Vikas Marg that comprises sectors 39 to 47 in its smart city project submitted to the central government, breaking free of Le Corbusier's legacy and heeding to one of the key demands of traders and industrialists.

A higher floor area ratio (FAR) --- the ratio of a building's total floor area to the area of the piece of land on which it was built --- of 3 from the fixed 1.25 and mixed land use would be allowed in this southern part of the city under the Transit Oriental Development (TOD) project. The structures could soar to around 30 metre on the lines of those in Industrial Area from the 24 metre in rest of the city.

The UT felt availability of huge chunk of commercial land of 357 acre has provided this area a potential to be developed on a large-scale. "This will ensure employment and investment opportunities along with better living standards," stated the proposal in one of the key segments. A senior official said the relaxations would be applied on new buildings. "Since the concept of green buildings has been introduced and strongly recommended, the new FAR will be for such buildings," he said, agreeing the city would move ahead from the Le Corbusier era. He, however, added that northern part of the city would not be touched and such scope remained only in the southern area.