They apprehended that Dhaka's planned urbanisation might suffer a serious blow with overwhelming number of building plans approved hurriedly over a short span of time under the flawed 1996 law that shows extreme leniency in construction.

Although the 1996 law was supposed to be replaced by the building construction rules of 2006, the authorities continued deferring its implementation.

The experts expressed the concern at a meeting on Saturday organised by Rajuk on how to implement the Metropolitan Building Construction Rules of 2006.

The discussants condemned the passage of so many building designs hurriedly, said president of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) Mubasshar Hussain. "I think the building plans approved hurriedly under the 1996 rules should be reviewed," he said.

The already messed up urban environment of Dhaka will deteriorate voluminously if those buildings come into existence, he said adding that the new building rules are of international standard with provision of Floor Area Ratio (FAR).

But the role of Rajuk has created a serious misperception about the new rules and its benefits, he said. "Rajuk should have carried out massive advertisements highlighting beneficial aspects of the rules and make the public aware of them."

According to a top official of Rajuk, several thousand of the applications which have been approved were grossly anomalous, inadequate and incomplete.

Most of the plans were faulty and some were submitted with counterfeit clearance certificates. Besides, many plans were placed without relevant clearances and proper documents including the land ownership papers, Hussain said.

Technical faults of those applications include faulty structural design, no or counterfeit soil test report and absence of competent engineers and architects in designing the plan, said highly-placed sources at Rajuk.

All present at Saturday's meeting expressed grave concern over what will happen to Dhaka's cityscape when 16,000 buildings will come in place, said the president of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (Rehab) Abdul Awal.

"But Rajuk has to at least make sure that building rules of 1996 is enforced properly in those cases," said Awal, who is a vice-chairman of Urban Development Committee.

Director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that consequence of putting so many more buildings approved under old rules would surely worsen the present environmental situation in the city.

Such approval of buildings is contrary to three foremost objectives of the new building rules, including percolation of groundwater level, creating green and open spaces and addressing neighbourhood concerns, she said demanding immediate implementation of the new rules.

The plans were submitted with a lot of flaws and anomalies, said an engineer who attended the meeting. Such anomalous plans were submitted and approved in connivance with a section of dishonest Rajuk officials.

The anomalies include suppression of information regarding road width and land ownership disputes.

"I think all the building plans approved hurriedly under old rules should be cancelled and now reviewed under the new rules," he said. "Plans were approved without the surveyors and building inspectors visiting the sites."

Architect Iqbal Habib, member secretary of the environmentalist group Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa), said that his organisation has all along been against hurried approval of so many plans under the old rules.

"The approvals were made despite uncounted flaws and the act has been unfair," he said.

Iqbal underscored that a properly drawn up Detailed Area Plan (DAP) is crucially complimentary to the building rules.

An environmentalist and vice-chairman of Urban Development Committee, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed said that the hurriedly approved plans could be reviewed if the government intends to do so.

He said the new building rules are beneficial in all respects particularly in conservation of urban environment.

But some unscrupulous quarters, including some Rajuk staff, spread a rumour that a builder would lose half of the plot under the new rules and created hindrance to its implementation.

"Some sections at Rajuk are unhappy with the building rules of 2006," said Prof Sayeed.

Chairman of Rajuk KAM Haroon said, "There is no scope for plan approval with deficiency in the applications."

He said that anyone interested can visit Rajuk website, see the gazette and buy copy of the rules from market.

After 20 days of gazette notification of Metropolitan Building Construction Rules of 2006, the government by an order on June 4 extended effectiveness of the old building construction rules of 1996 until June 30.

The chance prompted the builders, both commercial and private, to indulge in a rat race of plan-pass exploiting the interim opportunity.

In a similar order, the government further extended the effectiveness of the building rules of 1996 for next six months until December 31.

Rehab President Awal said, "It was not appropriate on the part of the government to extend the effectiveness of the building rules of 1996 by six months."

But the then public works secretary Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury said publicly at a meeting at a city hotel that the government extended the old rules in the face of tremendous pressure from an association of commercial builders.

By December 2006, Rajuk received a backlog of 16,200 applications for approval within January 31, 2007. Rajuk approved around 10,000 plans in one month and 13,500 by end of May with unspecified number of high-rises (above six-storey).