ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) is charging exorbitant consultancy fees for preparing reports about the condition of highrise buildings and other structures in the aftermath of October 8 earthquake and aftershocks, some of the builders in the capital complained. Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, they said Nespak demanded Rs1 to Rs6 million to provide its services to building owners in the capital despite the fact that it was a government institution whose assistance was required under the prevailing situation.

The builders said the government should not depend only on Nespak because there were many other engineering consultancy- providing companies which had better expertise and charged quite less.

They demanded of the government to direct Nespak to provide free of cost service for building inspections or if necessary charge nominal rates.

Following the October 8 earthquake, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) issued a public notice directing all builders and owners of highrise buildings, schools, private and government institutions to get their buildings certified from Nespak so that these buildings could be reinforced in the light of Nespak’s reports.

Minor and deep cracks have appeared on many buildings in Islamabad, putting the lives of their inhabitants and those working there in danger.

A source said Nespak charged Rs1 million for inspection of four campuses of Beacon House School, Rs1.5 million for preparing report for Pak Towers, a highrise residential building in F-10 Markaz, and Rs6 million from the owner of Mustafa Towers, the building next to the collapsed Margalla Towers.

However, Mustafa Towers had already been inspected by army engineers, experts of the CDA and two separate Japanese teams and all of them had declared it fit and safe for accommodation, the source said.

Talking to Dawn, Nespak’s Director-General Karamatullah said his organization had been charging according to the covered area of buildings.

“We charge at the rate of Rs5 per sq feet and this has been approved by the finance ministry,” the Nespak chief said.

He said the money charged by Nespak was spent on travelling of experts, preparation of design and study and examination of buildings.

Responding to a question, the official said Nespak could not inspect all damaged and quake-affected buildings due to limited resources and staff, therefore the builders should also consult other engineering consultancy firms to check their buildings.

Talking about the expertise, he said recently the organization had hired a PhD engineer, Dr Sohail Ahmed, on a very high salary to supervise inspections of damaged buildings.