CDA revamping building control mechanisms

Staff to be employed for new building control dept to regulate private housing schemes

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to control and regularise illegal construction in the city, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is in the process of devising a new mechanism to exercise its building regulations.

The regulations would be applicable in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and would particularly focus on housing schemes which lie outside CDA’s schemes.

Previously, due to lax enforcement of CDA’s building regulations, a mushroom growth of illegal housing societies was witnessed in the capital.

According to CDA Building Regulations 2005, CDA Building Control Directorate has a major role in implementing building by-laws in the capital. While its jurisdiction extends to the entire ICT, the directorate only enforced its regulations on CDA schemes.

Recently, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken notice of an application submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan over illegal and mushroom growth in the Bani Gala area of the city. The apex court had subsequently directed the CDA to devise a mechanism to come up with a solution over how these illegal constructions would be regularised.

Intriguingly, the CDA had formed a separate department, Building Control-II (BC-II), to enforce building regulations outside CDA schemes and sectors. However, no staff was appointed to make the wing functional.

“Work on it [appointing staff to the department] is in progress and staff is being posted in Building Control Directorate-II to make it practically functional,” Shafi Khan Marwat, who had recently been posted to the BC-II, told The Express Tribune.

Another CDA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that recently there were suggestions that the Water Supply assistant director would be posted in BC-II on a current-charge basis. Other names in the hat were those of Ashraf Shah, the assistant director of BC-I. Sohail Ahmed and Arif Jamil, inspectors in BC-I was also proposed to take up the seats of assistant directors in BC-II on a current-charge basis. Amer Rizvi, a building inspector in BC-I is being billed to take over the same spot in BC-II along with building inspector Tanveer Tahir. Moreover, Aman an assistant in BC-I is being touted to take over as an assistant in BC-II.

New mechanism

According to the mechanism, the BC-I would approve building plans and issue no-objection certificates for transfer of property,
lease extension.

Moreover, the land directorate would issue notices over encroachment on CDA-acquired land, footpaths, green belts and right-of-ways. Subsequently, the enforcement directorate would take action against encroachment and remove them.

Similarly, the land directorate would serve notice while the enforcement directorate would take action on removing any by-law violations on CDA-acquired land.

The BC-II, meanwhile, would approve building plans, issue completion of building plan certificates and NOCs for transfer of property and lease extension, detecting of building code violations within a plot for CDA-approved private housing schemes.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2017.