Thiruvananthapuram: More than 1.5 crore buildings across the state, including residential houses, are set to be renumbered this month. Of these, about 1.10 crore are houses, apartments and flats, while nearly 46 lakh are buildings used for commercial purposes. The renumbering exercise, originally scheduled to be carried out after ward delimitation and before local body elections, is now being implemented with a slight delay.

The Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) has arranged facilities to reorganise building numbers in the K-Smart application. The task will be carried out by corporations, municipalities and panchayats, for which detailed guidelines have already been issued. Building numbers will follow a uniform format, such as 1/1, denoting the first building in the first ward. While the first digit represents the ward, the second identifies the building.

With the geographical boundaries of each ward precisely mapped on the K-Smart platform, the total number of buildings in every ward will first be assessed. Buildings will then be assigned to their respective wards and numbered sequentially, starting from one. Earlier, to accommodate new constructions without disrupting the sequence, English alphabets such as A, B and C were appended to existing building numbers. To avoid this practice, provisions have now been made to reserve certain building numbers in advance for structures that may come up in the future.

Documents to be updated
The renumbering of more than 1.5 crore buildings will require the public to update revised details in a range of documents, including identity cards. While residents will need to update their records, owners of non-residential and commercial buildings will have to revise multiple documents related to licences and other statutory requirements. Although the government had earlier announced measures such as a Digi PIN to prevent frequent changes in building numbers, these are yet to be implemented.