KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday ordered the Association of Builders & Developers (ABAD) to ensure display of Sindh Building Control Authority barcode-based approval board at their under-construction buildings so that the people and the government could differentiate between legal and illegal structures.

He took this decision in a meeting he held with a delegation of ABAD led by its chairman Mohsin Sheikhani here at CM House.

The chief minister said that a large number of illegal buildings had emerged in the city against which ABAD had to cooperate with the government because the provincial government was going to take strict action against them.

He decided that ABAD members would display a board of SBCA approval with barcodes on their under-construction buildings. “The people through their mobile applications will be able to scan the barcode and ascertain whether the building was legal or illegal,” he said and added it would also be easy for the government to differentiate between the legal and illegal structures so that action could be taken accordingly.

Mr Shah directed the SBCA to issue barcodes to old buildings and they would have to display them on the buildings.

The builders told the chief minister that the approvals of their projects were pending with the SBCA from 2011.

At this, the chief minister directed SBCA to approve the layout plans if they meet their required formalities, otherwise return them to the builders/applicants concerned so that they could file their request afresh.

“What is the logic to keep the applications pending for a long time,” he said.

The ABAD delegation told the chief minister that the transfer of title in Hawkesbay scheme was still pending with the Board of Revenue.

The chief minister directed the senior member Board of Revenue to address the grievances of the builders and get the titles transferred in time.

Low-cost housing projects

The ABAD team offered the Sindh government to work with them on public-private partnership mode to launch low-cost housing projects in the city.

The chief minister, accepting the offer, issued a directive to the local government department to float a summary for the cabinet and suggest ways and means so that low-cost housing projects could be initiated for poor and low-paid workers.

The ABAD delegation also took up the issue of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clearances for their new projects for which the chief minister directed his Adviser on Environment Murtaza Wahab to sit with the ABAD delegation and resolve all their issues.

He also asked him to simplify the EPA approval procedures.

The chief minister assured the ABAD delegation of his full support to redress all their grievances so that legal construction could be promoted in the city.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2020