Murad urges ABAD to display SBCA Barcode affixed approval board at their buildings

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah Friday directed Association of Builders & Developers (ABAD) to ensure display of SBCA Barcode-based approval board at their under construction building so that the people and the government could differentiate between the legal and illegal structure.

He took this decision in a meeting held with a delegation of ABAD led by its Chairman Mohsin Sheikhani here at CM House, said the statement released here.

The members of the delegation were Senior Vice Chairman Sohail Warind, Vice Chairman Abdul Rehman, Chairman Sindh-Balochistan region Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hassan Bakhsi and Fayaz Illyas.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for Labour Saeed Ghani, Minister Local Government Nasir Shah, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Administrator KMC Iftikhar Shahalwani, Commissioner Karachi Sohail Rajput, Secretary Local Government Najam Shah, Secretary Information Imran Atta, director generals of KDA, MDA and LDA and DG SBCA.

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 we were going to take strict action against them.

He decided that the ABAD members would display a board of SBCA approval with barcodes on their under-construction buildings.

The people through their mobile applications would be able 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.

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

The builder told the chief minister that the approvals of their projects were pending with 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 concerned builders/applicants 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 Hawksbay scheme was still pending with the board of revenue.

The chief minister directed the senior member board of revenue (SMBR) to address the grievances of the builders and get the titles transferred in time.

The ABAD offered the Sindh government to work with them on PPP 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 EPA clearances for their new projects for which the chief minister directed his advisor on Environment Murtaza Wahab to sit with 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.