Architects to ‘strongly oppose’ construction rules amendment

NT NETWORK

PANAJI

Architects in the state are upset over the recent amendment to the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010, wherein site supervisors are given the authority to approve building plan for ground plus one construction having plot less than 500 square metres.

In a strongly worded objection letter addressed to the chief town planner, Town and Country Planning (TCP), architects have said that the amendment needs to be scrapped as it is against the safety and design of the building and strikes at the ethics of the architect profession.

Manguesh Prabhugaonkar, chairman of Indian Institutes of Architects (IIA), Goa Chapter, said that giving design powers to the site supervisors is highly questionable and the role of the site supervisor must be restricted to only supervision at the construction site.  “The amendment needs to be dropped as the supervisor cannot be allowed to be a signatory to the drawings for approval to authority,” he said, adding that qualification of the site supervisors are mostly diploma engineers and the “qualification is itself questionable under the Act.”

Local members of IIA while opposing the amendment have said that it is against the newly notified RERA Act which does not permit a diploma engineer to approve building design.

The National Building Code 2016, also does not permit a civil supervisor to be given design powers, they said.

The association has urged an urgent correction to the notification pointing out that it is in “complete violation to the Architects Act 1972.”

Architects have taken up the issue with their parent body, the IIA, based in Mumbai.

Further they have forwarded copies of the letter to the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the Minister for TCP, Vijay Sardesai, and the Council of Architecture, New Delhi and IIA- Mumbai.

Prabhugaonkar added that, despite concerns raised during the sub-committee meeting of the TCP over the amendment in the offing, the government went ahead and gave design powers given to site supervisors.

He said that architects are totally against the amendment and would resist it strongly.