CDA gets serious about implementing bylaws

[Salman]

ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: The board of directors of Capital Development Authority (CDA) in its meeting on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to its building control section to regulate housing societies and make sure that they implement bylaws.

The decision has been taken in line with the Supreme Court decision in which it had ordered cancellation of a lease between the CDA and a private party for the construction of a mini golf park at Jubilee Park F-7 (close to Kohsar Police Station in Jinnah Super).

“The CDA board has directed its building control section to ask housing societies to submit their building plans and ensure that no land of public parks, graveyards or any other amenity plot is used for any commercial purpose,” an official quoted the CDA chairman, Syed Tahir Shahbaz, as saying.

The chief commissioner of the Islamabad Capital Territory Tariq Pirzada was also present in the board meeting.

An official of the authority said that the housing societies registered with the circle registrar would also come under the purview of the building control section.

A senior official of the chief commissioner’s office when asked to comment on the matter said: “All the housing societies registered with the circle registrar of the ICT administration and holding an NOC from CDA or the ICT will have to follow the civic authority’s building regulations.”

The official of the CDA observed: “If CDA can approve plans and designs of petrol pumps located along Islamabad Highways then why not the housing societies.”

According to one estimate, the CDA is set to generate over Rs1 billion from the fines they would collect from violators of building bylaws and fees for the approval of building plans.

The official said that individual building owners would have to get NOC from the building control section.

“Even the high rise towers constructed in the housing societies will be regulated by this section,” added one official of the building control department.

With regard to construction on the amenity plots, the official said that buildings which were established in violation of approved layout plans of housing societies would be demolished.

The official said that CDA would soon publish an advertisement informing the general public about the implementation of the CDA policy.

A law wing official of the authority said that the move would plug fraudulent practices in real estate through which weak building
structures were sold to buyers without any approval of the building control section.

The official maintained that some people had lodged a complaint with the office of the prime minister saying that few private housing societies in Zone-IV and Zone-V have sold the plots of graveyards, parks for commercial purposes while some have established their offices in
public parks.