The Sindh government has devolved the Sindh Building Control Authority, splitting it into six regional offices. This is the third major change to the department since its creation in 1979.
The SBCA’s main job is to give construction permits in cities where breakneck urbanization is taking place.
The Sindh cabinet approved the proposal April 27 and thinking along these lines at CM House became evident in October 2020.
The chief minister said, according to a handout, that they were doing this because the SBCA had a “heavy workload”. Now the SBCA would work as a policy-making organization under a director-general.
There would be regional or divisional building control authorities with execution and operational powers:
Regional Building Control Authority Karachi
Building Control Authority Hyderabad
Building Control Authority Mirpurkhas
Building Control Authority Shaheed Benazirabad
Building Control Authority Sukkur
Building Control Authority Larkana
Up until now the SBCA’s work has been to charge fees to approve building plans, grant completion certificates for buildings after inspections, issue licenses to architects and builders, and issue no-objection certificates to people who want to construct buildings.
Another responsibility is to regulate and monitor construction so that building bye-laws are followed.
It oversees the sale of housing and commercial projects to the public through licensed professionals.
The permission to build should be given according to a city’s master plan but Karachi does not have any. Last year there was talk of creating a province-wide master plan authority.
