RAWALPINDI, Nov 24: The Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) will start a survey of commercial and domestic buildings in all 46 union councils to check whether or not these were constructed according to the approved building plans.

“The basic aim of this survey is to streamline the building department as most owners of multi-storey buildings started construction without the approval of building plans from the civic body,” a senior RTMA official told Dawn.

He said people rarely tried to get approval of their building plans from the civic body before starting construction. “Some building inspectors and regulation officials also allowed people to construct buildings without the authority’s consent,” he said.

“Despite the mushroom growth of construction in the city, the building plan fee collected in fiscal year 2012-13 was only Rs30 million which is beyond common sense,” he said.

Providing figures of previous years, he said the RTMA had recovered Rs25.5 million from the building plan approval fee in the fiscal year 2011-12 and same amount during 2010-11.

“According to a rough estimate, more than 12,000 commercial buildings and 6000 domestic units have been constructed in the city in the past seven years without approval of building plans,” the RTMA official maintained.

“One can see this mushroom growth at Raja Bazaar, Commercial Market, Benazir Bhutto Road, Jamia Masjid Road, Banni Chowk, College Road (China Market), Moti Bazaar, Sarafa Bazaar and adjoining bazaars,” he added.

When contacted, Rawal Town Administrator Mohammad Ali Randhawa confirmed that the survey would start soon. However, he maintained that it would be completed in three to four months as all 46 union councils had to be covered.

He said the RTMA would also impose a fine on those who had constructed commercial and domestic buildings without the approval of building plans, adding that the fines would be imposed soon after the survey was completed.

“The survey will also help the RTMA identify building department officials who had ignored the violation in their area and had failed to check illegal construction of buildings,” he said.

Mr Randhawa said a complaint centre had also been established to receive complaints of any malpractice by RTMA officials during the survey. “All such officials will face departmental action if found involved in malpractice,” he said.

He said the civic body had not increased the fee but wanted to expand its network so that all illegal structures can be brought into the tax net.

“After this survey, the RTMA will able to implement building bylaws and fire safety measures as well as items listed as essential safety measures in developed countries,” he said.