KARACHI: KBCA underscores need for uniform building bylaws
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 14: A representative meeting of several civic agencies on Wednesday emphasised the need for uniform and comprehensive building bye-laws to check haphazard and unplanned construction activities in the city.
It also called for ensuring that all housing schemes and projects must provide parking facilities and other required utility services strictly in accordance with the provisions of environmental pollution in their projects.
The meeting, convened by the KBCA at its conference room, was attended, among others, by Railways' general manager, Karachi Port Trust's chairman, Karachi military and cantonments' director; SITE's managing director and officials of different cantonment boards, including Clifton, Karachi, Faisal, Malir, Korangi Creek and Manora.
Presiding over the meeting, the KBCA chief controller, Brig (Retd) A S Nasir, deplored that though the problems being confronted by the civic agencies are the same, there was no similarity in their rules and regulations concerning building bye-laws.
Underscoring the need for having and implementing uniform building bye-laws, he said all those civic agencies which are assigned the task of regulating construction activities in the city would have to restrict those construction activities which have a direct impact on the city's environment.
When the KBCA pointed out that with the construction of "Amma Towers", the width of Aga Khan (IIIrd) Road was being affected, an official of cantonment Board, Ms Najma Saleh Hayat told the meeting that as soon as the cantonment board came to know that the cutline of Garden Road (Aga Khan IIIrd Road) was being affected, the Board got the project's construction stopped.
On this occasion, a representative of KPT informed the meeting that building rules and regulations of both the KPT and the KBCA are similar. Vowing to help provide a conductive environment for boosting housing, trade and industrial activities in the city, the civic agencies pledged to take measures aimed at bringing an end to the problems being faced by the citizens.
Endorsing the KBCA chief's suggestion that civic agencies should meet often for having a better coordination among them, the representatives of the civic agencies agreed to have such meetings after every three months. The KBCA's officer on special duty, Rauf Akhtar Farooqui and controller of buildings (Town Planning), Atique Baig, were also present.
At the outset of the meeting, the KBCA chief emphasised the need for all stakeholders to deal with building control issues with harmony and resolve the outlying issues so as to transform Karachi into a well-planned, clean and environmental hazard-free city, adds PPI.
"Our combined role should be to check irregular building constructions and illegalities being committed in this field," Brig Nasir told the participants. He said that the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, received complaints about irregularities in building constructions which is a common problem in the areas under the control of the city government and those of the cantonment boards.
He referred to the Sindh Building Control Ordinance and pointed out that it is a comprehensive document and other stake-holders should go through it and think over having uniformity in laws and other building control matters in its light. He made it clear that the city was growing fast and time had come that building control laws should be applicable equally in whole of the city.
He referred to layout plans of housing schemes and said there was a need to follow the planning standards as laid down in Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations 2002, with particular reference to density, parking requirements and preservation of environment.
He told the participants to also go through the Master Plan document and see if they could adopt it in the greater interest of the city. The KBCA chief stressed the need for assessing the availability of services, such as electricity, water and gas through concerned agencies before granting approval of housing/commercial complexes.
He said in some cases where plans have been approved, people are suffering because of these constraints. He asked why they should suffer and why not these services be made available to them in cases where plans have been approved. He informed that a meeting would be held in Islamabad on Friday to discuss water and electricity issues.
