KARACHI, Jan 24: The revised building and town planning regulations, prepared under the instructions of the Sindh government, have been vetted and cleared by the law department, except a few observations. After satisfying the queries these will be notified soon.

Besides, a new master plan is being prepared which is likely to be finalized within 18 months by the department set up under the city government, said the Sindh Minister of Housing and Town Planning, Dewan Mohammed Yusuf Farooqui, at a press conference here on Thursday.

Flanked by Provincial Secretary Town Planning and Local Government Qamaruzzaman and KDA chief Brig Zaheer Quaderi, the minister said new building bylaws had been prepared keeping in view the bylaws of other metropolitan cities, the Defence Housing Authority and cantonment boards. At present the DHA and cantonments had their own bylaws, but under the new master plan department, which had been set up under the city government, all departments concerned would have to formulate their bylaws under the overall parameters of the master plan.

He said the KDA had been working on the new master plan for the past four months, and the master plan would be handed over to a new department known as the Controlling Agency for Master Planning.

The minister said the previous master plan, prepared in the late 1980s at a cost of Rs470 million, was not implemented. However, now the same plan was being revised and updated to meet the future needs of the city.

He said the government had already promulgated the Sindh Building Control (Amendment) Ordinance 2001 for compounding offences related to building works. About 666 application forms had been sold and 13 cases been received till Jan 23 for approval.

He said the ordinance, enforced in December last year, was meant only to provide one-time amnesty to builders and bail out buyers of apartments who had invested their life savings to own apartments, but their investment had stuck up due to manipulation by builders in which KBCA officials and governments had been equally involved.

Dewan Yusuf said before drafting the ordinance views of the representatives of apartment buyers, ABAD and affected people and national interest had been kept in view, and builders and buyers in cases where buyers already had shifted, could regularize apartments by paying fine as fixed under the ordinance.

Replying to a question, Brig Quaderi said inquiries against 15 senior officials of the KDA were under way and some of them had replied to show-cause notices. Besides, he said, in the past year three controllers of buildings and their four assistants had been dismissed.

He dispelled the impression that KBCA officials continued to ignore violation of building rules by builders of some of the under-construction buildings, saying in October, November and December 48, 40 and 59 buildings, respectively, had been demolished.

Answering another question, the minister said in the city about 1,058 buildings needed regularization and for this purpose applications would be accepted till April 30 with six photographs, taken from different angles, of the buildings, and in the next three months all details of projects would have to be submitted for regularization.

Asked about interference by some Nazims in matters of under-construction buildings, he said the KBCA had not yet been devolved and remained intact till June 30, so before this date the KBCA would be under the control of the provincial government.

Regarding about 1,000 frozen plots of different categories, including amenity and industrial plots, the minister said a committee headed by the chief of the Sindh Kutchi Abadis Authority, Tasneem Siddiqui, was seized of the matter and the issue would be resolved within a month.

Likewise, the issue of the New Malir Housing Scheme, which was launched by the Malir Development Authority, had been referred to the National Accountability Bureau for resolution.

He said about 50 builders had been blacklisted who were found habitually violating building rules and further inquiries and investigations were on against builders.