Extended effectiveness of the building construction rules of 1996 until June 30 triggers an unprecedented rush for high-rise plan approvals. Experts fear that the hurriedly approved plans may leave an irrepairable damage to the city landscape

TAWFIQUE ALI

Urban experts apprehend that Dhaka's planned urbanisation is set to face a doom with thousands of building plans approved hurriedly over the last few months without considering vital prerequisites, constraints of utility services and physical infrastructures.

As many as 13,500 building plans were approved from January to May this year.

The frenzy of plan approval began with the controversial extension of the old building rules of 1996 to take undue advantage by a coterie of commercial builders that mounted tremendous pressure on the authorities.

After 20 days of gazette notification of Metropolitan Building Construction Rules of 2006 on April 16 last year, the government by an order on June 4, 2006 extended effectiveness of the old building construction rules of 1996 until June 30, 2006.

The chance prompted aspiring builders, both commercial and private, to indulge in a rat race of 'plan-pass' in connivance with a section of Rajuk officials.

In a similar order, the government further extended the effectiveness of the building rules of 1996 for six months until December 31, 2006.

By December 2006, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) received 16,200 applications for plan approval, said its chairman KAM Haroon.

"We approved around 10 thousand building plans in one month by January 31," said Haroon. "Normally, we can approve 1,000 plans per month on average."

The number of plans approved reached 13,500 by the end of May, he said.

The remaining 2,600 plans are seriously flawed and inadequate. If rectified within June 30, 2007, they will be approved, Haroon said.

Asked how Rajuk could receive 16,000 applications over a short span of two to three months, as it receives 1,000 to 1,200 applications a month on average, the Rajuk chief said, "The applications were not scrutinised in details at the time of submission."

"The applications may have some flaws at the time of submission, but the inadequacies could be removed later on verification," he said.

The Rajuk chairman denied that there was malpractice in approving such an overwhelming number of applications for build-

ing plan approval.

He said that out of last six thousand plans, approximately 150 were of high-rises but Rajuk's member (planning) could say exactly how many plans of high-rise buildings have been passed among the 13,500 approved so far.

But Rajuk Member (Planning) Nasir Uddin declined to talk to the media.

A top official of Rajuk said seeking anonymity that several thousand applications were grossly anomalous, inadequate and incomplete.

Making the building rules of 1996 effective again and again only facilitated malpractice in submission and approval of building plans in the capital.

Honorary chairman of Centre for Urban Studies and member of government's Urban Development Committee Prof Nazrul Islam said the phenomenon apparently will create a negative impact in the planned areas of the city.

But it is important to know the size of the buildings approved to assess what kind of impact they will cause. "Naturally, the authorities did not get enough time to scrutinise the applications, as there was a tremendous pressure on them for plan approval."

According to sources in the Rajuk, most of the plans were faulty with lack of required clearances from difference agencies, non-submission of land ownership documents and submission of counterfeit clearance certificates.

There are technical flaws such as faulty structural design, no or counterfeit soil test report, and absence of competent engineers and architects in designing the plan, said a top Rajuk official requesting anonymity. "Applications in many cases were not even signed by the applicants and qualified engineers and architects," he said.

Noted environmentalist and chairman of Transparency International Bangladesh Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said that hurried approval of so many plans without following vital prerequisites would naturally be flawed.

One has to count how many flats and occupants will be there in 16,000 buildings to assess the magnanimity of the problem, he said.

Approval of thousands of building plans without taking into consideration basic utility services and infrastructure facilities will result in further crisis, said Prof Ahmad.

The government should have

dealt with the issue in a properly planned and integrated manner before giving approval to thousands of buildings that will just add to people's sufferings and aggravate infrastructure constraints, he said.

An organised syndicate of brokers and counterfeiters at Rajuk made huge amount of money providing aspiring builders with forged clearance documents of various agencies for approval of building plans, according to sources.

Most of the intending builders, particularly commercial builders of high-rises, took the advantage from the counterfeiters to get their building plans passed as hurriedly as possible under the rules of 1996, said a highly-placed source at Rajuk.

Both the counterfeiters, active in making forged certificates, and trade union leaders at Rajuk made money out of the 'business' of plan pass, said Rajuk sources.

In a frenzy of malpractice, dishonest builders submitted as many plans as they could to get the plans passed within January 2007.

Forgery occurred mainly in obtaining clearance certificates from the Department of Environment, Civil Aviation Authority and Dhaka Transport Coordination Board as it is usually difficult to obtain certificates from those agencies.

Checking genuineness of thousands of clearance certificates in a time-constraint situation was just impossible, said authorised officers and members of clearance certificate scrutiny committee of Rajuk at that time.

A highly placed source at Rajuk said that thousands of plans were passed in an unprecedented hurry during June 4 to 30 of 2006 to avoid guidelines of the new rules.

The new rules aim at checking the raging irregularities in building constructions, both private and commercial, in the capital city. It is also meant to address the loopholes and inadequacy of the existing construction rules of 1996.

The government extended effectiveness of the old rules again and again in the face of tremendous pressure from an association of commercial builders, said former public works secretary Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury at a meeting.