ISLAMABAD: The city managers have decided to implement the CDA building bylaws in all of Islamabad after which no construction will be allowed anywhere in the capital without the permission of the civic agency.

“We have decided to write to Iesco and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) to not issue any demand notice to the owners of buildings without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the CDA,” said Member Planning and Design Asad Mehboob Kayani.

He said no new construction would be allowed anywhere in the capital without the NOC.

The official said assistance of the district administration would also be sought to ensure a complete ban on unauthorised construction activities.

Though the CDA ordinance 1960 authorises the civic agency to regulate all buildings in Islamabad, the authority never made any serious attempt to move beyond the developed sectors, leaving a major parts of the capital unchecked.

However, the incumbent management in a knee-jerk attempt has decided to regulate all the buildings across Islamabad. Some CDA officials told Dawn that the new move would be an exercise in futility as the civic agency had no manpower to undertake such as task.

“Honestly speaking, we have no capacity to deal with the entire Islamabad. We have small staff in the building control section which has even no regular director. How can we deal with all the construction activities in Islamabad,” said an official of the building control section.

He said before trying to enforce the by-laws across the capital, the authority should hire the required staff.

The CDA has been focusing only on the developed sectors, ignoring a significant portion of the capital where buildings have been constructed without following the rules. The construction of high-rise buildings has either taken place or continuing in various parts of the city,, including Park Road, E-11, H-13, Banigala, Bhara Kahu and Lehtrar Road.

But Mr Kayani said: “We are going to issue a public notice in newspapers, warning the citizens not to start construction of any building without getting the mandatory NOC from the CDA. We will implement our by-laws in letter and spirit.”

He said in the first phase the main focus of the authority would be on housing schemes and high-rise buildings.

“We are taking this step to ensure safety of the residents. In case any unregulated building collapses we will be held responsible. So we have decided to implement the by-laws.”

In reply to a question, Mr Kayani said: “Yes, we are understaffed but a process to hire the required staff has been started.”

A source in the CDA said in the past similar attempts were also made by successive managements but none of them focused on implementing the by-laws strictly.

He recalled that last month the management had placed an advertisement in newspapers announcing to regulate all the housing schemes. However, none of the sponsors of the housing societies paid any heed to the CDA direction.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2017