Govt instructed to stop allowing construction of new houses

KATHMANDU:

Development Committee of the Legislature-Parliament has directed the government to immediately stop allowing any individual to build personal physical infrastructure, including houses. It said that the ban should remain in place until there is a clear rule on building construction.

After holding a discussion with top-level officials of the concerned ministries today, the committee has instructed the government to include provisions like making mandatory provision of leaving space for 16-foot wide road where houses are built for residential purpose. Similarly, if housing companies are constructing buildings for joint housing and apartment purpose, such locations need to assure space of 32-foot wide road.

Amid the city dwellers facing acute shortage of open spaces during the recent quake, the committee has also directed the government to devise rules that would make it mandatory to have a garden spread over a certain area, wherever there are 100 residential houses. Through the budget for the current fiscal year, the government had also talked of making an open space that can accommodate at least 25,000 residents in municipalities.

Three weeks ago, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) in a bid to restrict haphazard construction, had permitted building houses of only up to two storeys (including basement) until mid-July. It had said construction of structures taller than two storeys would be allowed after readying the new building code.

For many infrastructure built in the Valley not abiding by the set rules, government is also mulling over demolishing the houses that were constructed without getting the required approval for blue prints and/or designs from respective municipalities.

As per the secretariat of the Development Committee, the government has been instructed to strictly implement the criteria to promote earthquake-resilient infrastructure, fix the standards for quality of construction materials and allow settlements to be built in the urban and rural areas only after basic infrastructure are made available in the locality. Similarly, the government has been directed to implement a provision which requires licensing system to construction workers based on their skills.

In today’s meeting, the committee had discussed about physical infrastructure sectors by inviting top officials from the National Planning Commission, MoFALD, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Ministry of Finance. The meeting also talked of land use and directed government to devise a policy with a target of developing separate residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural areas.

In the meeting, the committee members underlined the need to focus more on big projects than small ones to give momentum to development drive besides carrying out reconstruction. Even as there has been huge loss in terms of physical infrastructure, they said that the government must not deviate from the target of graduating from the status of least developed country to a developing nation by 2022.

Source: THT