{"id":52,"date":"2026-04-01T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/pressroom\/?p=52"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:29:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:29:27","slug":"hundreds-of-illegal-constructions-despite-building-approvals-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/hundreds-of-illegal-constructions-despite-building-approvals-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of illegal constructions despite building approvals rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kashmir Impulse Desk<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jammu, April 1<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government acknowledged on Wednesday that unauthorized construction continues to spread across some of its most prominent tourist destinations, even as it has approved hundreds of new building projects in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a written response to a question in the legislative assembly, the tourism minister said that 807 building permissions had been issued by Tourism Development Authorities between 2023 and 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of approvals, officials said, rose sharply in the most recent fiscal year after a brief decline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than two-thirds of the approvals were for residential buildings, while others included commercial structures, hotels and smaller lodging units \u2013 reflecting continued expansion in tourism-linked infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, officials reported widespread violations across key destinations, prompting enforcement actions that have included sealing properties, demolitions and legal proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Gulmarg, authorities identified 21 illegal structures, most of which have been sealed. Pahalgam recorded 28 such constructions, with action ongoing in several cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Patnitop, 15 structures were demolished, while others were halted before completion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doodhpathri emerged as a particular concern, with 147 unauthorized constructions flagged and legal notices issued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additional violations were reported in Sonamarg, Verinag and Bhaderwah, where hundreds of notices have been served.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Officials said enforcement efforts are continuing, underscoring the challenge of regulating development in ecologically sensitive and high-demand tourist zones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The disclosures highlight a growing tension between the push to expand tourism infrastructure and the need to enforce planning rules in some of the region\u2019s most visited areas.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maecenas mauris elementum, est morbi interdum cursus at elite imperdiet libero. Proin odios dapibus integer an nulla augue pharetra cursus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[8,9,14],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","tag-business","tag-education","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1302,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/1302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirimpulse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}