RMC tells building owners to produce maps

Warns of action against illegally constructed plazas

RAWALPINDI: Tightening the noose against illegal construction in the garrison city, the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) has issued red notices to several building owners in the commercial areas of the city.

Owners of many commercial buildings located along Murree Road near Liaquat Bagh and adjoining areas told The Express Tribune that they have been directed to submit approved building plans.

Every building is required to have a building plan developed by a certified architect and approved by the local authorities.

The corporation has warned building owners that if they fail to produce the approved maps of their buildings, RMC will seal their premises and may even demolish all such structures. Moreover, FIRs will be registered against the violators.

Meanwhile, some influential plaza owners have started approaching the MPAs and MNAs of their constituencies to save themselves from punitive action, sources said.

Some building owners said that these plazas and shopping centres were built in the 1960s and they only have land documents but no maps. “No one bothered then, and now decades later, the RMC was demanding maps,” a plaza owner said adding that many buildings were erected by contractors and that they never had to consult architects in the process then. A shopping centre owner who was served the notice to produce building map said he would challenge it in the high court.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2020.