KARACHI, Oct 30: Defending its position on an illegal dangerous projection being made at a building on Tariq Road, the KBCA has clarified that the plans of the building were approved in 1963 by the defunct KMC’s architect control department prior to the promulgation of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance and before the establishment of the KBCA.

Without mentioning whether the projection being made at the building is in violation of clause 2 of Chapter 9’s Section 5 of Karachi Building and Town-Planning Regulations, 2002, the KBCA claimed that “the building in question is quite an old one having been constructed about 35 years ago.

“The owner of the building has only pealed off the outer plaster and was carrying out face-lifting/ colour creed work on the facade to give a new look to the building,” it said while referring to a newsitem in Dawn on Thursday.

Dawn , however, stands by its story.

According to reports, the owner of the building while undertaking face-lifting work has not only extended the arcade’s projection but has also added RCC structure below it.

Though the above mentioned rules of the KB&TP Regulations clearly state that “no construction shall be allowed in the chamfered portion up to 17 feet (5.17m) measured from the adjacent road”, the building’s facade is hardly 9 feet high from the adjacent street level.

The clarification is silent over the prescribed safety measures which a builder is required to adopt while undertaking such works.

The KB&TPR’s Section 8 says that a builder is required to put up fences or barriers to separate the building work from such streets and where such separation is not possible he is supposed to make arrangements for the security of public to the satisfaction of the authority concerned whereas no such measures have been taken at the building’s sites where shutterings have been put right on the footpath, forcing the pedestrians to either pass through them in a zig-zag manner or walk on road.