RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has not approved new building by-laws because of elected members’ reservations, and will start new consultations next week.

A senior RCB official told Dawn that the civic body formulated new building by-laws for the cantonment areas that were presented to the elected members, who had some reservations. He said the RCB wants to implement the by-laws before the elected members’ tenure ends, which will be in June.

He said that if the by-laws are approved this month they will be implemented before the next local government elections in the cantonment areas. Otherwise the by-laws will be implemented after the elections.

RCB wants to implement by-laws before elected members’ tenure ends, official says

The official said the civic body formulated the new by-laws to streamline residential and commercial areas according to modern requirements. The old by-laws were made in the 90s.

He said the old by-laws did not allocate enough space for parking, as the population was smaller two declares ago and parking was not required as it is today.

The RCB official said elected members were using delaying tactics to give the owners of under-construction commercial buildings and domestic owners time to complete their buildings according to the other by-laws.

However, the elected members were of the view that the new by-laws did not take into account ground realities. They said the by-laws relating to residential areas need some changes, and owners of commercial buildings in some areas also had objections.

When contacted, RCB Member Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the elected members expressed reservations regarding the by-laws because the RCB did not want to allow the construction of the third storey for domestic buildings.

He said that the new by-laws allowed two floors, and the RCB made it compulsory to build a room on the roof. He said that in most residential areas, people build houses on three to five marlas and two floors are not enough to meet families’ requirements.

He said that in commercial areas, the RCB wanted to make it compulsory for people to leave open space at the back and allocate room for parking. He said this would be difficult for those building shops and flats on small plots.

Mr Ahmed said the building by-laws need to be made according to ground realities, adding that elected members were pressing the administration to make some amendments to make the by-laws acceptable to everyone.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019