# Srinagar's building boom threatens mountain limits

> Jammu and Kashmir is loosening construction rules faster than Srinagar can absorb them, ignoring warnings that mountain towns have carrying capacity.
- Title: Srinagar's building boom threatens mountain limits · The Hindu
- Summary: Jammu and Kashmir is loosening construction rules faster than Srinagar can absorb them, ignoring warnings that mountain towns have carrying capacity.
- Keywords: srinagar, jammu and kashmir, construction, floor area ratio, ease of doing business bill 2026, mountain towns, environmental capacity, The Hindu
- Source: The Hindu — https://thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/building-over-srinagars-future/article71682424.ece
- Author: Tikender Singh Panwar
- Published: 2026-11-09T19:22:09+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: srinagar, jammu and kashmir, construction, floor area ratio, ease of doing business bill 2026, mountain towns, environmental capacity, news, politics
## Two conversations not converging
Everyone agrees mountain towns are reaching their limits. Springs dry up, lakes choke, slopes give way. Yet Jammu and Kashmir keeps making building easier, overwhelming Srinagar.

> No hill town should approve large construction before measuring what it can carry.
## Floor Area Ratio raised repeatedly
Floor Area Ratio determines how much floor space can be built on a plot. An FAR of two hundred percent on a hundred square metre plot allows two hundred square metres of floor space.
## Nine months of rule changes
Building by-laws were amended December one, twenty twenty-five.July twenty-four, twenty twenty-six, they extended to Housing Board colonies with additional FAR and reduced setbacks.
## Ease of Doing Business Bill becomes law
On September twenty-eight, the Ease of Doing Business Bill, twenty twenty-six, was tabled in the Assembly. In the first week of October, the Lieutenant Governor gave assent and the Bill became law.
## Suspend rules until they fit the plan
The author calls for suspending Floor Area Ratio and land-use exemptions, along with Section twenty-two, until they are brought within the Master Plan framework and subjected to public objections.

> Suspend the FAR and land-use exemptions, along with Section 22, until they are brought within the Master Plan framework and subjected to public objections
## Key takeaway

Srinagar faces uncontrolled building growth as Jammu and Kashmir repeatedly raised construction limits without checking the city's environmental capacity.