Construction permits under Category-I to be issued in 30 days: SBCA

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). As part of the ground-breaking reform on the directive of Sindh Chief Minister and with technical support from the World Bank, the requirement of interdepartmental 'No Objection Certificates' (NOCs) and other NOCs of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB), Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and of Exercise & Taxation Department have been waived off.
For this, first in a series of reforms, the procedures and 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 progressive and public-friendly initiative of the SBCA.
On the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Building & 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 compared to 60 days in the past.
Before these reforms, 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; but, in the light of these reforms, the number of days has been reduced to 92, and the procedural steps have been reduced to seven. The
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 include: (i) Residential bungalows up to 399 Sq. yd. having ground plus one floors. (ii) Any other building on plot up to 120 Sq. yd. 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. yd.