AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
Karachi, February 02, 2018 (PPI-OT): As a first step towards reforms aimed at facilitating the acquiring of construction permits for citizens, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has eased out the procedure for the approval and issuance of Construction Permits for residential houses and non-obnoxious warehouses (Category-I buildings). This has been done on the directive of the Chief Minister of Sindh and with technical support from the World Bank. As part of this ground-breaking reform, the requirement of interdepartmental No Objection Certificates (NOCs), and other NOCs of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW and SB), Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and Exercise and Taxation Department Government of Sindh have been waived off.
For this first in a series of reforms, the procedures and the timeline for approvals of construction permits for residential houses and non-obnoxious warehouses have been revisited. These reforms are applicable for the city of Karachi. “Nothing can stop an organization, with the right mental attitude and team, from achieving its goal,” said Director General and Chief Executive Sindh Building Control Authority Agha Maqsood Abbas, regarding this progressive and public-friendly initiative by SBCA.
On the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Building and Town Planning Regulations, notifications regarding these amendments in procedures and timeline have been published, according to which every case of construction permit falling within Category-I shall be approved and issued in a single-stage procedure within a period of 30 days, as opposed to 60 days earlier.
Before these reforms were introduced, the total process of obtaining a construction permit and consequently a completion certificate upon completion of construction took 260 days and the applicant had to go through 15 procedural steps; in the light of these reforms the number of days has been reduced to 92, and the procedural steps have been reduced to seven. SBCA is also in the process of introducing a risk-based evaluation system for issuance of Construction Permits, with the pilot project currently underway for Category-I buildings.
The Category-I of buildings includes:
(i) The residential bungalows up to 399 Sq.yds. having (G+1) floors.
(ii) Any other building on plot up to 120 Sq.yds. with a height of up to 33 ft.
(iii) Any non-obnoxious warehouse having height up to 35 ft. and or having plot up to 1100 sq.yds.
For more information, contact:
Information and Archives Department
Directorate of Press Information
Government of Sindh
95-Sindh Secretariat 4-B, Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-99204423, +92-21-99204401
Email: pressinformationzubair@gmail.com
Website: http://sindhinformation.gos.pk